The Craziness that is Konoha High
by WinButler
Summary: Sasuke likes Neji, Neji likes Sasuke. But things keep getting in the way. Things like the craziness of high school. And one Naruto Uzumaki. [SasuNeji, shonen ai]
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto 

Warnings: There will be shonen ai of the SasuNeji variety.

A/N: It is an AU high school fic. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. :)

The craziness that is Konoha High chapter 1

Naruto Uzumaki woke up bright and early on Monday morning, rested and ready for, well more rest. In fact, the only reason he woke up early was because of his alarm. And the only reason he woke up bright was because it was almost June. Oh well.

He clambered unwillingly out of bed and shoved on his clothes. He wished his guardian, Iruka, would be more prompt at getting him out of bed, but unfortunately, he was a little preoccupied. Naruto didn't want to ask, but Iruka was still in his room.

Naruto proceeded to pack his bag for school and left the house. He walked alone to Konoha High School, the school which he and all of his friends (who were fairly numerous) attended. He wondered what that day would bring. It was May, making it exam time, which he didn't especially appreciate, since he was hardly the brightest student in the school.

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As he entered the schoolyard, he was greeted by two of his close friends, Ino and Sakura.

"Morning, Naruto!" Sakura smiled.

"Hey, Sakura." He grinned. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing." The pink haired girl giggled rather childishly.

"What?"

She smirked. "The weirdo is staring at us again."

Naruto looked over to where she was glancing. Sasuke was indeed looking in their direction. He didn't think Sasuke was weird, but most people did. Their high school wasn't one of the sort where the most attractive were necessarily the most popular; Naruto was well liked because he was friendly to everyone and was never rude. Sasuke, however, was not as accommodating. He was unnecessarily rude and harsh to anyone who tried to reach out to him, and the only people he ever talked to were his only friend, Shikamaru Nara, and his brother, Itachi.

"What do you think he wants?"

Ino grinned wickedly. "He's checking Naruto out."

Naruto looked at her disapprovingly. "He is not. You guys don't have to be mean to him. He's just…."

"Whiney? Pathetic? A moody bastard?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Maybe if we gave him a chance - "

"Yeah, sure, Naruto. See you in class." Sakura and Ino strolled off, still giggling to themselves.

Naruto had known the two girls since he was seven years old, but he still failed to see how females could be so bitchy. He supposed they were just born with that quality. But it didn't matter. He went to homeroom, to catch up with some of his other friends.

Kiba, Hinata, and Shino were all good friends of his as well. He discussed a few unimportant things with them before finally seeing the only person he ever really wanted to see: his best friend, Neji Hyuuga.

"Neji!" he cried, motioning for him to sit where he always did in homeroom. Neji sullenly went to sit next to Naruto. Neji was always sullen, but that didn't bother Naruto especially. Lots of people, Sakura and Ino and included, didn't understand why someone as well liked and friendly would be friends with someone as anti-social and cold as Neji, but hey, he was better than bloody Sasuke. Besides, Naruto had been friends with since Neji since forever.

"So, what did you do at the weekend?"

Neji shrugged. "Homework."

"Cool."

"You wanna go to Biology?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not especially."

"You didn't do the homework."

Naruto frowned. "Damn, you know me too well."

"You can copy mine."

"Thanks, Neji."

"No problem."

It was pretty much established that Neji was one of the smartest kids in the year, so Naruto was appreciative of any help he could get. Unfortunately, Neji simply wasn't good enough at math to help Naruto, so Naruto had to get a tutor from the year above.

"So, wh – Neji?" Naruto frowned at his friend, who was glancing absentmindedly in the direction of Sasuke Uchiha.

"Huh?" responded Neji vaguely.

"Uh, why were you staring at Sasuke Uchiha?"

Neji went slightly pink. "I wasn't. I was just thinking…he doesn't really have any friends, does he?"

"He doesn't appear to want them. Besides, he's got Shikamaru."

"I guess so. Hey, you know, maybe you could ask him to hang out with us?"

Naruto frowned. Neji was being weird. "Uh, I'd rather not just go up and talk to him, I've never spoken to him before. And I…" Naruto was not the sort to be shy, but he was a little nervous of Sasuke. He had read about a teenage boy who had come to school one day and killed a bunch of people. Naruto didn't know why, but he had the feeling that was the sort of thing Sasuke Uchiha might one day do. "Besides. I've got nothing in common with him."

Neji smiled. "That's not entirely true."

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It was lunch. Naruto was just about to take his seat when a voice from behind him interrupted.

"Naruto?"

He gulped and turned, knowing who the voice belonged to.

"Hey."

"Have you done the assignment I gave you, Naruto?"

Naruto swallowed. Make up a lie, some lie, any lie….

"Uh, well, I did but, then, the thing was…."

"A raccoon ate it?"

Naruto pouted. "Used that one before, have I?"

"Yep." Replied the black haired boy. His tutor, a senior who was one year his elder, and easily the most intelligent student in the entire school clearly wasn't impressed.

Naruto grinned. "Well, actually, this time it was a weasel…"

The boy narrowed his eyes. "You know, you'd think I'd find that hilarious."

"Sorry. I'll do it tonight."

The older boy sighed. "Naruto, if you want to pass math, you have to work with me. This is for your benefit. I tutor you because I get paid, not for some noble cause."

"OK." Naruto felt slightly ashamed. He wasn't entirely sure why.

The boy turned and walked away.

"Wait!"

He turned back around.

"Uh...could you tell your brother that Neji Hyuuga says hi?"

Itachi looked puzzled, but acquiesced. He strode off.

Naruto buried his face in his hands. "Man , that sounded so much better in my head."

End of ch 1

A/N: Please tell me what you thought. I know there are a lot of high school fics, and yes, I know that Sasuke is popular in the show. But at my school, he probably wouldn't be because in ours the people who are friendly and confident and make an effort with others have the most friends (no I'm not one of them). I thought I'd turn the tables on him a bit. Serves him for being so pouty.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto 

Warnings: SasuNeji (later), a bit of bad language.

A/N: I'm probably going to update everyday or nearly everyday so i can get this one finished quickly.

Craziness chapter two

On an unnecessarily hot Monday afternoon, Neji Hyuuga stared out of the window of his math class, daydreaming, an extremely uncharacteristic thing for him to do, but the teacher was boring him half to death. He knew all about differentiation, it was hardly difficult math. He was no math genius, but he sure was better than some of the dunces in his class. The only person that seemed to get it was –

"Neeeejiiii!"

Neji sighed. "Yes, Naruto?"

"I don't get it."

Naruto had been Neji's closest friend since he was four years old. He wasn't entirely sure, sometimes, why Naruto put up with him, he was perfectly aware that he was sometimes a bit distant. But then again, he wasn't entirely sure why he put up with Naruto.

"Well, what about it don't you get?"

"I don't get why someone would ever want to bother finding out the gradient of a line."

Neji clenched his fists. Naruto was always like this, especially when it came to math. He needed a reason to learn to do something before he attempted to do it. Particularly things he found hard. Neji swore he would never know how Itachi Uchiha managed not to beat Naruto to death with his textbook. The senior had been Naruto's tutor for almost the whole year, and even he was having trouble teaching him.

"Well, the point is this: If someone wants to pass math this year, they need to work out how to find the gradient of a line. Happy?"

Naruto pouted. "Ecstatic."

Neji sighed and turned away, getting back to what he was doing before. I.e., desperately trying to divert his focus from the back of Sasuke Uchiha's head. Not that that was really what he was focusing on, but hey, it was the only part that Neji could see.

He silently damned himself for his own stupidity. He knew it was just a little crush, that was all, but damn him for feeling this way. Especially about someone who was about as likely to return his feelings as he was to fly to Mars. Oh well.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"No way!"

"Yuh huh!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Uh huh!"

"Eeeeee!" Sakura squealed and shut off her cell phone. No way did that creep like her. She was not going to let darn Ino Yamanaka freak her out like that. Rock Lee was so scary it was, like, not even funny, and he if he ever asked her out, as Ino had promised he would, she was sure to kill herself right then and there.

Sure he was smart and good at a lot of things, that was probably why he been made a senior prefect, but that didn't matter to Sakura. After all, Itachi Uchiha, who creeped Sakura out more than anyone, had been too.

"Ugh!" she squealed. Lee was so freaky! She cursed Ino. This would mean nightmares for weeks.

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"All right, class, pens down." Shikamaru sighed and put down his pen. That test sure had been a drag. He had been so bored he'd stopped halfway through and slept on his desk. No wonder he was failing History.

"Nice one, lazy ass." Muttered the black-haired boy sitting next to Shikamaru. "I wonder if you'll pass this test."

He laughed. "I don't care if I pass, really, Sasuke. History's a waste of time anyways."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted. He did that a lot.

"Hey, Sasuke, that kid is staring at us again."

Sasuke looked up at Shikamaru. "What kid?"

Shikamaru shuddered. "The weird one with white eyes and long dark hair."

Sasuke was vaguely aware of his face becoming ever so slightly pink, and he thanked heavens that Shikamaru was too lazy to notice. "Uh…you mean Neji Hyuuga."

"Yeah." Nodded Shikamaru. "He keeps looking over here."

"He does?" asked Sasuke casually.

"Yeah. Anyone would think he liked me." Said Shikamaru egotistically.

"Well at least you could get this one." Said Sasuke spitefully. "Remember when you had a crush on Ino Yamanaka, who is, by the way, painfully out of your league?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Actually, Sasuke, I still think she's pretty fine."

Sasuke grunted again and exited the classroom when they were dismissed to go, without another word to Shikamaru. He looked behind him to see Shikamaru embarrassing himself in front of Ino, who was ignoring him in favour of that dobe Naruto Uzumaki.

Unfortunately Sasuke had briefly forgotten that not looking where you're going has consequences.

"Ow!" He heard someone cry, and they knocked into to him and fell to the floor.

Neji cursed himself for not looking where he was going. He quickly grabbed his books that he dropped, hearing a condescending tone from above.

"Hn. Sorry about that. Guess I ought to pay more attention."

Fuck fuck fuck. Sasuke Uchiha.

"Uh, it's ok. I, um, probably wasn't really looking, and, um - "

"Here." Sasuke dropped to his knees and made to hand Neji his book.

"Thanks." Said Neji awkwardly as the two boys got to their feet again.

"Well, see you." Muttered Sasuke.

"Bye." Said Neji in his usual sullen tone.

As Sasuke strolled off to catch up to Shikamaru, Neji smacked himself in the chest as hard as he could. Had to make sure his heart was still beating, after all.

-------------------------------

Later that cursed Monday, Itachi made his way to Naruto's house. If Naruto hadn't done any work, Itachi swore, this time, he would do something to make him regret it. He wasn't entirely sure what yet, but…something.

He rang the doorbell, and waited for Iruka to come to the door.

"Itachi, hi."

"Sensei." Itachi gave Iruka a curt nod.

"Come on in, he's in the study."

Itachi made his way into Naruto's study, where he found the boy frantically writing down answers.

"Itachi! Look, I'm finished."

"Great." Said the black haired older boy. "Let me see."

Naruto passed Itachi his calculations, praying to get at least one right.

"Now, you see, there are several problems with this one, Naruto. First of all, the square root of 64 is 8, not 148."

"Whoopsy. I guess I doubled it instead."

Itachi didn't bother to comment on the fact that twice 64 was 128. "And second of all, you can't divide 3x by 2y and expect to get 5z. Algebra really isn't your strong suit, is it?"

"No." mumbled Naruto.

"And I really thought we were making progress." Sighed Itachi.

The next hour passed uneventfully, save for Itachi clonking Naruto on the head twice when he refused to acknowledge the worth of trigonometry ("But HOW would you ever use it again, Itachi?").

When their time was up, Iruka gratefully paid Itachi and he began to head out the door. But before he left, he stole a quick glance at Naruto and headed back.

"Naruto." He said confidentially.

"Yes?"

"You don't tend to hang around with my brother, do you?

"No."

"Because Sasuke's been weird lately, that's all. He goes weird whenever I mention girls, and he's always distracted during training. He hasnt got any problems with anyone in your year, right? People aren't picking on him again, are they?"

"First of all, the last time someone picked on your brother, he knocked them out, and second, no one pays any attention to him. Except Neji."

Itachi nodded. "That's the one."

Naruto gasped, realizing what he'd said. "Wait. What one?"

"The one I sometimes catch Sasuke looking at weirdly."

"You don't think..."

"Yep."

"Well, what can we do?"

"Don't worry, Naruto." said Itachi, grinning wickedly. "I have a plan."

END OF CHAPTER 2

A/N: feedback makes me smile!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

A/N: I realize there was an unnecessary amount of math in the last chapter. But don't worry, that will cease.

Warnings: SasuNeji. Heh heh.

Craziness Chapter three

Four days had passed since that fateful Monday. And Itachi and Naruto's plan was developing, well, not at all.

"Itachi, don't you usually have good ideas?" Naruto moaned.

"Ah…well. Um…" Was the only response Itachi could muster.

"We have to come up with something. Neji totally likes Sasuke. And if, as you say, Sasuke likes him too, then we have to get them together. It's like, our moral duty."

Itachi raised his eyebrows. "And you really think this serves their interest more than ours?"

Naruto grinned. "No. Is that a problem?"

"Not at all. I'm not known for my selflessness." Commented Itachi.

"So how about a plan already."

"OK. I've got a pretty large amount of influence with the teachers, being a genius and all. There may be something I can do."

"Such as…."

Itachi mused for a minute. "Their history teacher is Mr. Hatake, right?"

"Yeah, I'm in their class too."

Itachi smirked. "OK. I have an idea."

"You seriously think you can use Mr. Hatake for something like this?"

Itachi gave Naruto a sour look. "I can use anyone I want, Uzumaki."

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Ino and Sakura were in homeroom, discussing whose highlights were cuter.

"Nuh-uh!" squealed Sakura. "Do you see these tints? They are so hot this season."

"No way!" scoffed Ino. "My blonde looks, like, way cuter now that I'm multi-tonal." She giggled girlishly.

Hinata, Kiba and Shino were looking on in puzzlement.

"Is it bad that I barely know what any of those words even mean?" asked Kiba.

Hinata shook her head. "I'm a girl, and I can only get a vague idea of what they're talking about."

"Good." Said Kiba. "Because we actually have to know what language they speak to hang with them."

Hinata giggled, while Shino gave a vague grunt.

"Where's Naruto this morning?" asked Sakura vaguely, glancing briefly at Hinata and Kiba.

They both shrugged.

"Ino?" Sakura asked.

"Haven't a clue. Why?"

"No reason." Said Sakura quickly. "Just wondering. We have that History project starting today, and I wanted to know if he'd be my partner."

Ino looked shocked. "Sakura! We were meant to be partners!"

"Sorry, Ino. But you want to go with Shika, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "Why would I want to go with that freak?"

Sakura giggled. "I was just kidding, Ino. Why don't you and Hina go together?"

"OK. Hinata, cool?"

"Sure." Hinata said, blushing a little. Ino frightened her a little, but she wasn't sure why. She, Ino, and Sakura had all been friends since the third grade. And together with Naruto, they were some of the most well liked people in the year. Oh well. She didn't have an awful lot in common with Ino, but she could try.

"Guys." Said Naruto, who had come up behind them. "You do realize the likelihood of us being able to choose our partners is slim to none?"

They sighed. "Yeah. Wishful thinking, Naruto."

Sakura interjected. "Hey. You don't know for sure that we won't get to choose."

Naruto grinned to himself. "Oh yes, I do." He said quietly, so that no one could hear him.

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In History class later that day, everyone was overly excited about the project and who they would get to go with, along with what topic the would receive. Kakashi Hatake, their teacher, was always keen for people to work together in his classes. He encouraged "good inter-student relationships". Translation: Less work for him to mark.

"OK, OK. Calm down. I know you're all super-excited to find out about this fun history project you'll be doing, but try to remember it will actually involve work." He said in his usual bored tone.

The class sighed. They were not going to get to choose partners. Well, they had seen this coming.

"Now, this project, you'll be happy to know, was in fact, suggested by one of our older students, so if you ever see Itachi in the halls, try to not to beat him to a pulp, OK, class?" he said jokingly. "OK. On to the partners for this one, then. Sakura Haruno and Shikamaru Nara."

"Crap." Moaned Sakura. "That guy! He does literally no work. How am I ever gonna pass this class?"

"Hee hee." Giggled Ino beside her.

"Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi."

Sakura only needed to give Ino one look to convey everything she needed to say.

"I deserved that, right?" asked Ino sourly.

"Yep." Replied Sakura.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuuga." Hinata went bright pink. Naruto smiled. At least he was with someone he liked.

Kakashi continued to read names for the next several minutes. Shino and Kiba were put together, along with several other pairs. Naruto grinned. He knew what was coming.

"Sasuke Uchiha, and Neji Hyuuga."

"Yes!" thought both Sasuke and Neji to themselves, making sure no one could se the happiness on their faces. Naruto was less good at controlling himself.

"Yay!" he shouted.

"Naruto, what the hell?" asked Sakura. "You don't have to be so happy about that. Your best friend is going with, like the meanest guy in the whole year. You should feel bad for him."

"Uh…..I'm mad at Neji right now."

Sakura looked surprised. "Oh? What did he do?"

"Um…..He, uh, hit on the girl I like." _Wow. That is the fastest I have ever thought._ He said to himself.

Sakura looked dismayed. "Who?" she demanded.

"Uh, uh, um….Hinata." he said quickly, not thinking quite so thoroughly about that one.

Sakura looked disgusted. "Neji hit on his own cousin?"

Naruto mentally slapped himself on the forehead. "Uh…no. Of course not. I meant, uh, TenTen."

"You said Hinata." Said Sakura skeptically.

"Well, I got them confused." Said Naruto, his blush deepening.

"You got the girl you have a crush on confused with someone else?"

"Yes." Said Naruto, beaming.

"I don't believe you, Naruto." Declared Sakura. "You don't really like TenTen. And I bet Neji never hit on her. I bet you're not even mad at him. So are you going to tell me the real reason you're so happy?"

Naruto, by this time, was confused about what was going on, so he decided on the safest option. "No."

"Fine." Said Sakura. "Besides, you could never get TenTen."

Naruto pouted. "Why not?"

"For one thing, she's in the year above. And for another, she's got a big crush on Itachi Uchiha."

"What?!?! He doesn't like her, does he?"

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Where on Earth did that come from?"

Naruto honestly didn't know.

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"So…like. How do you wanna do this?" Neji asked. He was in Sasuke Uchiha's house. This was good. But unfortunately, it was to actually do work.

Sasuke frowned. "I want to do the project. You can leave me alone and let me do it in peace."

Neji sighed. "But, Sasuke, I'm good at history, you see. I can actually help."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Admittedly, you are preferable to pretty much anyone else in that lame class. Shikamaru never would have volunteered to help."

"So I can help?"

"Sure." Muttered Sasuke. "Sit." He motioned for Neji to sit next to him on his couch.

Neji sat. This was….interesting to say the least.

"So what do you know about the civil war?" asked Sasuke.

"Uh-not much. I can do research, I guess."

"Yeah. Do that."

"Thing is, I don't have much free time today, and no free time in school."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "None at all?"

"Uh…I have a student council meeting tomorrow at lunch."

Sasuke sighed. "The lives of the popular. Sorry, I meant the pathetic."

Neji frowned. "Hey, it's not my fault Naruto's my friend. He would have been elected if he weren't, you know…"

"Pitifully stupid?"

"Um…well, those aren't quite the words I'd use, but I suppose you're right."

"Well, what about tomorrow after school?" asked Sasuke.

"Hmmm." Neji considered this. "I just think we'd have better luck if we could use the school resources."

"Well, why don't we ask if we can stay late?"

"OK. That could work."

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Naruto was staring out of his window, grinning maniacally to himself. Itachi was so smart, he thought. He wondered to himself what that whole thing with Sakura was. Why was Sakura so mad when he told her he liked TenTen, which was, admittedly, a terrible lie? Naruto wondered if Sakura liked him. He certainly didn't like her. Not in that way, anyway. She wasn't his type. He preferred dark hair, he thought.

But the thing was, now that he came to think of it, he'd never really had a crush on a girl. How weird. Considering he was sixteen. Oh well! He went back to mindlessly staring out of the window, reveling in his and Itachi's plan. If only he knew the complications that were to come!

END OF CHAPTER THREE

Hee hee. This is fun. Y'know, this is the first Naruto fic I've ever written. If I'm getting them painfully OOC, especially Neji, please inform me. :D


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto 

Warnings: SasuNeji. Long chapter (for me).

Craziness chapter four

Thank fuck it was Friday. Neji was utterly tired of the week. He couldn't wait for the day to be over, and to finally be able to relax. He felt a little bad for Sasuke. The Uchiha had informed Neji that he and his brother were both karate champions, and had to spend most of their free time training.

Neji sighed and exited the staff room, where their student council meeting had taken place. Nothing of use had been discussed. Sakura, the other representative for their year had been fighting for a wider range of low-cal snacks in the lunchroom, but no one had paid particular attention to that. Student Council president TenTen had done almost nothing except give Neji the evils, for which Neji had absolutely no explanation. He found her staring at Itachi a lot too. He shrugged. Women were hard to figure out.

He was planning to stay behind after school that day to work on the history project with Sasuke. They were going to stay in the computer room, researching, then put a slideshow together. Neji was not looking forward to it one bit. He was not easily distracted, but Sasuke was, no doubt about it, one big distraction.

His last class of the day was English lit. Neji hated this class, to him it was a huge waste of time. There was no subject that he wasn't good at, but English lit simply bored him to death.

The teacher had been droning on for twenty minutes about the use of first person narrative, and Neji was beginning to drift off.

"Hey Neji."

"Oh. Sasuke. Didn't expect to see you here. Um….what are you doing here?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I figure, the janitor's closet is as good a place as any to hang out."

"Sure." Nodded Neji. "Makes sense."

"So what are you doing here, Hyuuga?"

Neji thought about it. "Well, I needed to fetch a mop."

"All right, fair enough. So now we're just in a janitor's closet, then."

"Yep."

"It's pretty small in here."

Neji rolled his eyes. "For the love of Ra, Sasuke, would you just make out with me!"

"OK."

This exchange was quickly followed by a random making out session that was unfortunately interrupted by someone outside the closet.

"Neji! Neji Hyuuga!"

Neji panicked, he didn't want to be caught in the compromising position that was Sasuke lying on top of him with his tongue shoved in his mouth.

"Neji! Are you listening to a word I'm saying?"

Neji was pulled out of his pleasant daydream by his distinctly _un_pleasant English teacher.

"Neji, you have not been listening at all, have you?"

Neji figured honesty was probably the best policy here. "No, Miss."

"Well, why on Earth not? Was what you were concentrating on more important than my lesson? If so, why don't you share it with the rest of the class?"

Neji had to restrain a laugh at the thought of telling the entire class: "Yeah, everyone, I was having a perverted fantasy in which I make out with Sasuke Uchiha in a closet."

Instead all he said was: "No thanks."

She snorted. "Well then, I suppose you can come back after school and let me fill you in on what you've missed." She said snidely.

"No, I can't." he said defiantly. "I have to do history project work tonight. I'm going to the computer lab, you see."

She gave him the second most evil eye he'd seen all day. "Well then Monday will have to do, won't it?"

"Yeah, OK." He said sullenly.

Fridays sucked.

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The end of the day finally came, but unfortunately for Sasuke Uchiha, he had to go and work on his project with Neji. Like he wanted to waste his time doing that. It wasn't as if he needed Neji's help, he could just do the work on his own. But for some unknown reason, Neji seemed intent on helping him. And all the strange feelings Sasuke got whenever Neji was around certainly didn't help.

He arrived at the computer room, glad to see that everyone else had left. He glanced at his watch. 4:02 pm. They would be locking the school at six, so Sasuke supposed they would have to be quick.

"Hey, Sasuke." Neji said, as he arrived.

"Hey." Murmured Sasuke.

"Well, I suppose we'd better get on with it."

"Yeah." Responded Sasuke non-committally.

They spent the next hour or so doing futile research on the internet, neither boy putting all that much effort into the task. Neji eventually gave up and turned to Sasuke.

"So what are you doing this weekend, Uchiha?"

Sasuke grunted. "Training."

"Oh. That sounds like…fun."

"It won't be. Itachi's better than me. Plus he's having Naruto over to watch. They've got some kind of stupid game going on between them. God knows what the hell it is they're up to, but to be honest I don't care."

Neji frowned. "Your brother and my best friend? That is strange."

"Yeah. So what are you doing?" asked Sasuke.

"Nothing special. Sakura, Hinata and Ino are going to get their nails done. And if, as you say, Naruto is, for some reason, hanging out with your brother, then I've got no one but Kiba and Shino to make nice with."

"I gotta say, that doesn't sound especially appealing."

"No it does not."

"Oh well. Our plans might not come off if we don't ever get out of here. Because it doesn't look like we're gonna finish the work."

Neji nodded. "We can finish on Monday if necessary. I'm certainly in no mood to work."

Sasuke sighed. "Well, I guess we could take a break."

"Yeah, that sounds OK. You wanna go sit over there?" He motioned to the couch at the back of the room.

"Sure."

They went and sat.

"Well…." Said Neji. "This is….awkward."

"Yeah." Said Sasuke in his usual distant tone. "So…do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Nope." Replied Neji. "I have a cousin. Hinata, you know."

"Oh yeah."

"Is it nice, having an older brother?"

"Is it nice? You have to be kidding me. Itachi's always been the better child. Do you know how hard it is to compete with someone who is a senior prefect, top three in his class, adored by all the girls, and has loads of friends?"

"Well….admittedly, no. But to be honest, I don't see what's so great about your brother. I mean, what girls fawn over him, exactly?"

"Temari and TenTen, mainly. But he's got all these friends….not that I would want to hang out with Deidara and Sasori, I'd rather die. But sometimes, just hanging with Shikamaru can get damn boring. I do like being alone though."

"That's good. I like being alone too. A lot of the time. No offence, but sometimes I don't wanna be around Sakura and Ino, and people like that. I really hang with them for Naruto's sake."

"Yeah, I can understand, I guess."

"I mean, they are nice people, but…"

"Yeah. I know. My brother's just got a lot of annoying things about him. He's…annoyingly perfect."

Neji raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking." Muttered Sasuke. "I seem like an arrogant bastard most of the time. I think I'm superior to everyone, and that's why no one likes me."

"I-I wasn't - "

"No, its OK. Shikamaru says I try to pretend I think I'm the best and shut people out all the time so people can't see the real me." Sasuke sighed.

"And do you think he's right?"

Sasuke shrugged. "In parts, you know, he probably is. He's taking Psych, you know, so all this is just him repeating what he's read out of a textbook. But I don't know if I want people to know me. I don't honestly think I'm that goddamn deep."

"You don't?"

"No. Itachi thinks I'm an emo."

Neji laughed at this. "Yeah, I don't think that's true. Don't you have to have emotions in the first place to be an emo?"

Sasuke, for the first time since Neji had met him, actually laughed. "You know, Hyuuga, you're actually all right. Considering."

"Uh…thanks, I guess." Neji responded warily. "You too."

"Hm. So, uh, I guess you are dating Sakura, is that right?"

"What?" asked Neji. "No thank you. She's got a huge crush on Naruto."

"Really?" asked Sasuke.

"Uh, yeah. She'll never get him, though."

Sasuke snorted. "Why not?"

"Ha, I can't tell you."

"Why the hell not?"

Neji smiled. "I don't think he'd appreciate it. He's got a crush on someone else, that's all. I can't tell you who though. Mind you, I'm fairly sure he has no idea that I know."

"So, what, you just guessed?"

"I don't need to guess when it comes to Naruto. I know him better than he knows himself." Neji responded in a superior tone. "He's just utterly confused at the moment, that's all."

Sasuke grinned. "Sounds just like my brother. He made out with one of his weird friends a couple of months ago, and now he's completely confused."

"Really, who?"

"Deidara. He tried to make the excuse that it may as well have been a girl, but I didn't buy that for a second."

Neji looked at Sasuke in awe. "Man. You really can't keep a secret, can you?"

Sasuke frowned. "No, I can, I just don't especially care about Itachi. I wouldn't go telling people, though, unless you want to get your ass kicked by Itachi."

"That sounds fair."

"So, what about you? Girlfriend, boyfriend?" Sasuke scolded himself for asking. Like he cared. AT ALL.

"Nope." Replied Neji. "I just don't really have time for that. Besides, its not like anyone would ask. People think I'm weird, you know."

"I wonder why." Muttered Sasuke semi-sarcastically.

"Oh well. I don't mind that much. I've got student council to think about, plus, my biology teacher wants me to enter my paper on Amazonian insects and their feeding habits into some competition or other, and I've got all these projects to think about. Plus, no one in this school really interests me." He lied through his teeth.

"Is that so?" murmured Sasuke. "I mean, yeah. Me neither."

The conversation continued in this vein for a good while, until Neji, through no fault of his own, brought up the rather sensitive subject of Sasuke's parents. It turned out that a year ago, both of them had been killed by muggers while on holiday in the South Pacific. Sasuke had never told anyone this before, so Neji was more than surprised that Sasuke was even willing to talk about it.

"Um, it was really weird when they told us." Started Sasuke vaguely. "I don't really know how to describe it. Itachi and I were at a competition – a karate competition, you know. We were staying at a friend's house up North for the competition, and my parents decided to go away for the week. And, well, we got back after the competition to my friend's place, and there were these two cops there. At first we didn't know what to think, we thought there'd been a robbery at his house, or that he had got into trouble, or something like that, but then they asked if they could talk to the two of us – me and Itachi, that is – in private."

Neji listened intently, not sure whether he should say anything.

"And, well, I can't really remember all that well, it becomes sort of a blur after that, but I remember Itachi went really really stiff. Like a statue. He just sort of sat there. Not really taking it in. I was freaking out, I think, and Itachi was just-sitting there. As if he couldn't understand. I never knew he really cared that much. But for a few months after, he didn't really seem like himself. He told me something once. I-I don't know if I should say."

Neji tried his best to look sympathetic, Sasuke did seem to be finding it hard to talk about it. He looked into the pools of Sasuke's deep black eyes, as if trying to tell him that it was OK.

"Um…" Sasuke vaguely continued. "Yeah. He told me one night, after we had been training, that he never really knew how to feel. He said that the reason he had been so weird was because-because" Sasuke could feel his voice cracking. He couldn't do this. His emotions had never bubbled anywhere near the surface before, and he certainly didn't plan on letting it happen now, with Neji so close. He didn't like Neji so close. It scared him-somehow.

"Sasuke." Said Neji firmly, gripping Sasuke's arm. He stared at Sasuke for what seemed like a lot longer than ten seconds (which was what it actually was), and finally spoke. "Let me in, Sasuke."

Sasuke was lost for words. He paused for a moment or two, giving Neji a menacing look. But eventually, he seemed to give up whatever was inside of him holding him back.

"OK. He told me that he felt guilty that he didn't care that Mom and Dad were dead. There."

Neji could not help but be transfixed by Sasuke as he said these words. All he could bring himself to say was "Sasuke, look. The sun's setting. Its nice, look."

Sasuke was not in the mood to look. He sat back down on the couch at the back of the room. He became lost in his thoughts. Thoughts of Itachi, of his parents, of Neji Hyuuga. That boy brought out the worst in him, he swore. He never wanted to – wait.

"Uh….Neji?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"Its May. Late May."

"And?"

"And in late May, the sun does not set before eight pm here."

It took a couple of minutes for Neji to realize what Sasuke had said. "Eight p – what?!? It's – It's eight pm?"

Sasuke looked at his watch. "It's 8:06."

Neji gasped. "Oh no it is not! Didn't they think to check if anyone was in here first?"

Sasuke shook his head. "This room is adjoining, you cant see anything from the other one. And we only have a small light on in here."

"But – but -" Neji spluttered. "But we can't be locked in!" The two boys ran into the adjoining room.

"We'd better go check. If the door to this room is locked, then, basically, we're - " Sasuke slammed his fist against the door. " – fucked." He finished.

"You know what this means, right? We're trapped here. For the whole night." Said Neji worriedly.

"No, I don't think you quite understand, Neji. We're trapped here for the whole fucking weekend."

END OF CH 4

Oh I am evil….mwah ha ha

Btw, please please review. Go on, it only takes like 30 seconds…..


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto 

Warnings: SasuNeji

A/N: Oooh, thanks to all you nice reviewers:D mwah!

Craziness Chapter five

It was a mild, pleasant Friday evening as Naruto strolled over to the Uchiha mansion. He could feel the temperate breeze brush his hair back from his face as he wandered towards the front door. He rang the bell hesitantly, waiting for Itachi to answer. After a pause of about a minute, Itachi did so, greeting and Naruto and telling him to come in.

"So, sit, Naruto, sit."

Naruto squealed with impatience. "Come, on, Itachi, tell me how it went!"

Itachi grinned in his oh-so-evil way. "It went perfect. No one suspected a thing. I even turned the lights out in there, and they never even noticed."

"How did you get the key?"

Itachi snorted. "Oh, that was easy enough. Mr. Hatake was talking to me about college decisions, and he left his keys on the table. All I had to do was point out the window and go "Oh, look, Mr. H, isn't that Iruka-sensei doing shirtless press-ups?" God bless perverts. They're so easy to take advantage of."

"So while he was looking, I'm guessing you grabbed the keys and pocketed them?"

Itachi nodded.

"And later on…"

"It was a piece of cake. They were in that little room, the one you can't even see from the hall. I locked the door and shut out the lights. I stayed to watch my plan in action of course, to make sure it all went off all right. I hid in a broom closet. When the janitor came to lock up, she found that the door was already locked and assumed one of the cleaners had done it. So naturally, she wouldn't check if anyone was still there. So she left, and after that, I went too."

"Man, Itachi, you're a genius."

"Yep. Now, you know, Naruto, you have to contribute to "the plan" sometime as well."

Naruto nodded. "What can I do?"

"Easy, you can deal with Temari and TenTen."

Naruto looked puzzled. "Uh…what did they do?"

Itachi rolled his eyes. "They have a crush on me, and they think the reason we're spending so much time together is because you're helping me get a date. Or something stupid like that."

"How do you know that?"

"Uh, Sasori sometimes…spies on the girls when they're in the locker room. Reconnaissance, he calls it. I call it being a serious pervert. Anyway, he heard Temari and TenTen talking about it and told me."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" asked Naruto.

Itachi smirked. "I won't tell you yet. But I just need you to cooperate."

Naruto frowned. Itachi was being damn cryptic. "Come on, Itachi! What, what is it?"

"I just need them to think that I'm not available." Said Itachi annoyingly. "Then maybe they'll give it up."

"OK….." Naruto was extremely puzzled.

-------------------------------------

It was now 9:47 pm. Sasuke and Neji had been trapped in the room for over five hours now, and were beginning to get restless. They had not talked any more about themselves, it seemed to put Sasuke in a bad mood. Neji could hardly blame him though.

"Neji?" asked the Uchiha suddenly.

"Yeah?" replied Neji hesitantly.

"You realize we have no water, right? We're probably going to die."

"Die?" snorted Neji. "We won't die, it's only two days."

"Well the human body can't go more than a few days without water."

"No, I know." Smiled Neji. "I've got water in my bag."

"Oh. Well, uh, that's good."

"Yep."

The uncomfortable silence returned after this little exchange. Neji looked out the window, watching the stars. There were lots of stars in the sky tonight. As he was well versed in astronomy, Neji found that staring at the constellations was a pleasant way to pass the time, but he didn't think his companion felt the same.

"Neji, what are you doing?"

"Oh, just looking at the stars. You can see the Perseus cluster tonight."

"Um…OK."

Neji smiled. "Do you know much about astronomy?"

"Nope." Replied Sasuke. "I don't even know what you mean by Perseus."

"Perseus was a Greek hero who slaughtered the gorgon Medusa. He was then pursued by her sisters, who were immortal."

"Fair enough."

"I guess you don't read a lot."

"Nope." Shrugged Sasuke. "I haven't got time. I've got a brain, and I'm good enough at the subjects I take, so I see no need to spend time I could be using to train reading stuff that probably won't help me in the long run."

Neji looked surprised. "I would have thought you liked to read."

"Well, sometimes I don't mind it. I mostly read non fiction."

"Oh? You don't ever read novels?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Not really. I like Catcher in the Rye, I guess."

Neji smiled. "So do I."

They sat back down together on the couch, uncomfortably close for Sasuke's liking. He didn't, however, shift away.

"Um…Sasuke." Said Neji tentatively. "I'm sorry…about earlier. I didn't mean to make you mad."

"It's OK." Muttered Sasuke. "I don't mind. I'm not especially good with the whole emotions thing. But I'm getting better."

Neji simply smiled and looked down to the floor. Sasuke shifted a little, and Neji noticed his fingers brushing against Sasuke's as he moved. Neji quickly moved his hand away, as though he were touching something white hot. Sasuke went slightly pink, and turned away, as if he found the blank computer screen on his other side endlessly fascinating.

"Sasuke?" asked Neji. "Are you OK?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, fine. It's just uncomfortable on this seat. You wanna sit on the floor?"

"Sure." They sat down in front of the couch, their backs against it.

"So…we should really think of something to do." Commented Neji. "If we're gonna be stuck in here for two more days, we might as well."

"Well, what do you suggest?" asked Sasuke sullenly.

"How about a game?" suggested Neji.

"A game? What are you, a child?" snorted Sasuke.

"Sakura and Ino always make me play games with them and Naruto. At parties and stuff. You know, truth or dare, spin the bottle, stuff like that."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "There's hardly any point with two people."

"OK. I guess you're right." Mumbled Neji.

They sat in silence for the next two or three minutes. Until-

"Neji?"

"Yeah?"

"Truth or dare?"

-----------------------------------------------

Twenty minutes and several truth or dares later, Neji and Sasuke had learned a few things about each other. Neji liked cats more than dogs. Sasuke's favourite colour was black (shockingly enough). Neji's closest friend was Naruto.

"You know, when they invented this game, I really don't think they meant for boys to play it, to he honest with you, Sasuke." Said Neji after a while. "Let's face it, we're useless at it."

"Yep." Responded Sasuke. "Well, get some tips from Ino and Sakura. What kind of things to they normally say?"

Neji rolled his eyes. "Stupid things. Stuff like, "who do you have a crush on?" and "Would you ever sleep with someone for money?" and "Who do you think is the hottest teacher?". Nothing we'd ever answer, that's for sure."

"Who says?" replied Sasuke. "You never know until you ask."

"OK." Said Neji warily. "Who do you have a crush on?"

"Have a guess." Said Sasuke. His tone had changed. Neji wondered why he was acting so strangely.

"OK….Sakura."

"God no. Kill me right now."

"Ino?"

"Worse."

"Hinata?"

"Nope, but getting closer."

"Uh….that girl from our math class with the cool hair? The one who wears glasses and likes all the cool bands?"

"Jobo? Nope."

"Um….Is it someone in the year above? TenTen?"

"Not TenTen."

Neji frowned. "Am I close?"

Sasuke grinned. "Not…especially."

"OK. It's not a teacher, is it? Its not Tsunade-sama, is it?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "These guesses are getting worse."

"OK." Said Neji. "I was close with Hinata, right?"

"Yep."

"So who's like her? I sure can't think of any girls she hangs out with other than Sakura and Ino."

"Neji?"

"Yes?"

"You're an idiot."

---------------------------------------

END OF CHAPTER FIVE

A/N: sorry for the short chapter, guys. But don't worry, the next chap will be up tomorrow. I was going to have some SasuNeji action in this one, but I kinda felt like it was too soon. Also, I put the girl Jobo in because my friend Jobo wanted to be in one of my fanfictions. Just to clear that up. She won't be appearing again. Anyway, review, please!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto 

Warning: SasuNeji. Hee hee.

Craziness Chapter 6

Friday, 11:47 pm

Sasuke and Neji had given up playing truth or dare, and had resigned themselves to sitting in silence again. Neji had failed miserably to guess the person Sasuke had a crush on, much to Sasuke's annoyance. Was he just going to have to spell it out for the moronic Hyuuga? He sighed.

"Neji?" he asked, glancing slightly at him.

"Yeah?"

"You wanna go to sleep? I mean, its getting kinda late, and I'm really tired."

Neji nodded. "OK, sure. Where do you wanna sleep, the couch?"

Sasuke frowned. "One of us is going to have to sleep on the floor."

"You wanna flip for it?"

"OK." Sasuke took out a coin from his bag, and flipped it, allowing Neji to call it.

"Tails."

Sasuke grinned. "Heads."

"Damn. Looks like it's the floor for me." Muttered Neji, resigned to his fate of an uncomfortable night. "But tomorrow, I get the couch."

"Fine. But on Sunday, I do."

Neji thought to himself. "You don't happen to have a cellphone, do you?"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "If I did, don't you think I would have called someone by now? I never have my phone with me. There's little to no point, since no one ever calls me. Why, do you have yours?"

Neji sighed. "Yeah, but its out of battery."

"Oh well." Sasuke murmured. "We'll just have to accept our fate."

"I suppose there's no chance of escape through the window?" Neji wondered.

"Doubt it." Snorted Sasuke. "We're on the second floor. We'll probably end up dead."

"Yeah. Oh well. Goodnight, I guess."

"Yeah. Night."

Sasuke shut out the lights and made his way on to the couch. Neji crawled to the opposite end of the room, as far away from Sasuke as he could get, and settled himself down in the most comfortable corner he could find.

----------------------------------------

1:52 am

Neji had gone to sleep. His breathing was steady, and he wasn't making a sound. Or, at least that was what Sasuke thought. He got out his iPod, deciding that to listen to music was his only option at this point. He was not really tired, he had only suggested sleep so that he could escape to his own thoughts without Neji's constant observation. And on top of that he was hungry, thirsty, and bored out of his mind. The worst part was he was freezing cold. They turned the heat off at six, and he could practically see his own breath he was that cold.

Neji turned over. He knew Sasuke thought he had fallen asleep long ago, but the truth was he was far too cold to sleep. And even his thoughts weren't warming him up that much. If only Sasuke were a friend, or a girlfriend, then they could share body heat. Not much chance of that happening, Neji told himself. He heard a strange sound coming from Sasuke's side of the room, he sat up to try and hear better. He had to stifle a laugh. Sasuke was singing. He was obviously singing along to whatever he was listening to.

"_I had seven faces. Thought I knew which one to wear. I'm sick of spending these lonely nights training myself not to care."_

Neji sighed. Sasuke was a truly awful singer, but the words he was singing at least meant something to Neji. He liked that song too.

He turned over again, and tried to get to sleep, but he knew it was no use. He could not stop thinking about damn Sasuke. The minutes passed unbearably slowly, in fact, time itself almost seemed to stop. He glanced vaguely at his digital watch. It was 2:14 in the morning. Oh well. It might be more sensible to sleep during the day anyway, when it wasn't so cold and they had nothing better to do. He thought about how on Earth they were going to occupy themselves the next two days. The history project was one idea, an idea that Neji wasn't too keen on, but it had to be done. He had the feeling Sasuke had had enough of sharing, so he didn't think talking was really on the cards.

Neji shivered again. This was distinctly unpleasant. He wondered if Sasuke felt the same as he did. He was not long in doubt.

"Neji?" a voice whispered, penetrating the dark silence.

Neji jumped. Sasuke could have been no more than a foot in front of him, though of course he could barely see, it was so dark. However, his eyes had gotten used to it, and he could now clearly see Sasuke's outline standing above him.

"Um…yeah?"

Unbeknownst to Neji, Sasuke was blushing slightly. "Ca-can I sleep over here?"

Neji raised his eyebrows. "Sure. Why, though? You want me to sleep on the couch?"

Sasuke sat down next to Neji. "Um…no. I just thought that if we slept nearer each other, we'd be warmer. Uh…body heat, and all."

Neji's heart raced. Sasuke wanted to sleep near him?

"I mean, if you'd rather not, then I - "

"No." Neji interrupted. "That sounds….good. I'm freezing."

"Me too." Said Sasuke.

"So...you can just lie down here…uh, if you want." Said Neji uncomfortably, motioning to the area just in front of him.

Sasuke acquiesced, lying down right in front of Neji. He had been right. This was hotter.

Neji prayed to anyone listening that Sasuke wouldn't move any nearer, otherwise he'd be in big trouble. Unfortunately, the deities had not chosen to be kind to Neji that night. Sasuke turned over in his sleep, facing Neji. He was presumably, sleeping, or almost sleeping, as Neji was sure that awake Sasuke would never have wished to be close enough to Neji that their noses were mere inches apart, and that their fingertips, knees and toes gently brushed against one another's. How wrong he was.

Neji gulped. He was never going to be able to sleep now! He sighed, trying to think of other things. Which was difficult.

All of a sudden, he felt something very strange. Sasuke's hand was resting on his own. Neji felt a flush through his face, he felt his stomach drop and his heart skip several beats. What was Sasuke doing?

As though all of Neji's fantasies came true at once, he felt Sasuke's lips brush against his own. He lay paralyzed, unable to move a muscle in his body. He could almost feel Sasuke's cold black eyes penetrate his own white ones through the crisp darkness. Sasuke's lips remained on Neji's for what felt like an eternity. He trembled with nervousness.

"S-Sasuke?" he tentatively asked. "What was-uh-what was that?"

Sasuke didn't respond for several seconds. Then-

"I don't know." He whispered. "I just wanted to see what it would be like."

Neji gulped, his heart pounding. He could feel Sasuke's warm body pushing closer to his, and could almost hear Sasuke's own pulse racing through his chest.

"OK." Replied Neji, his words almost getting trapped in his mouth. "Wanna see again?"

Sasuke's smile could have penetrated even the most chilling dark. "Yes." He said. "I didn't really get a good look the first time."

Neji took this as his cue to pull Sasuke's body into his, feeling the heat emanating from him flow through his own body. He embraced Sasuke's lips with his, feeling his passion rising. Sasuke ran his hand through Neji's long, soft brown hair. He ran his tongue lightly over Neji's lips, begging him to reciprocate. Neji did so, smoothly gliding his hand over Sasuke's waist and entwining their legs together. Their kiss grew deeper and more passionate, and Neji heard a muffled moan escape Sasuke's delicate lips.

They eventually parted for air, allowing Neji to sigh and brush his hand along Sasuke's cheek. "That…was interesting."

Sasuke breathed deeply. "To say the least."

Neji smiled wantonly. "Can I guess who it is you like now? I bet I get it this time."

END OF CHAPTER SIX

A/N: yay, they hooked up! Man, writing these scenes is more difficult than it looks. Especially when your brother keeps interrupting. Oh well. Review please! Oh yeah, and the lyrics are NYC by Interpol.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: don't own Naruto 

Warnings: SasuNeji

A/N: I'm like super sorry about the late update. My internet is broken. 

Craziness chapter 7

Sasuke Uchiha was sleeping soundly on the floor of a cold and dark computer lab. It was just about eight o clock in the morning on Saturday, and the chill ran through the room. Sasuke, however, didn't feel the cold. Especially when he was nestled snugly in the arms of Neji Hyuuga, who was lying behind him with his arms wrapped around Sasuke in the most adorable manner.

A few minutes later, Sasuke began to stir. He cautiously opened his eyes, aware that he was not in his bed. Thoughts of what had happened the previous night came flooding back to him. He and Neji had kissed. Several times. In fact, much of the night had been devoted to making out. Sasuke hadn't minded, but now that the dizzy light of morning was upon him, he was beginning to see with a little more clarity.

He sighed. Neji was still asleep. He wondered if Neji felt the same as he did. He was worried about what Neji was going to say when he woke up. Sasuke did not reflect much further, he simply settled himself in the comfortable position he was in.

He suddenly felt a tickling on his arm. He smiled, assuming it was a few strands of Neji's beautiful long hair brushing against his arm, but he looked down, and was unpleasantly surprised.

A spider. A huge, black, hairy, goggly-eyed spider making its way up Sasuke's arm. His reaction was lightning fast.

"Aaaaaaaaah!" he screamed and jumped up as fast as he could, frantically beating his own arm in an attempt to get rid of the spider.

"Oh my god, is it off?" he cried, panicked.

"Is…what off?" mumbled a vague, incoherent voice from below Sasuke.

"Neji!"

"Yeah. What are you yelling about?"

Sasuke went pink. "Nothing. Nothing at all. I had a bad dream."

Neji raised his eyebrows.

"I mean…a really bad dream. Like - scarring."

"What was it about?"

Sasuke thought as fast as he could. "Um…Itachi."

Neji frowned. "And you felt the need to use the phrase "Oh my god, is it off"?"

"Uh. Yes." Said Sasuke.

Neji rolled his eyes. Sasuke was usually a bad liar. Mainly because normally he told the truth, however bluntly. He liked to call it "being brutally honest."

"Whatever. Oh, hey, look, Sasuke, a spider." Neji pointed to the spider, which was now languishing on the floor a few feet away from them.

"Uh…right. Let's just leave it alone, eh?"

"No, it looks hurt. Let me take a look at it." Said Neji, going over and allowing the spider to crawl on to his hand. Sasuke visibly shuddered, but thankfully Neji was looking in the opposite direction.

"Um, Neji, why don't you just throw it out the window?" asked Sasuke in a would-be casual voice.

"No, don't you want to see? It's really big, check it out. I don't think I've ever come across one this big before." Said Neji.

"Um.." Sasuke instinctively moved away as Neji brought the spider closer. Neji extended his hands so the spider was as close as Sasuke could stand, before he gave up entirely and dived behind a computer.

"Sasuke? What are you doing? Are you scared of spiders?"

Sasuke growled. "Shut it, Hyuuga. Just get it the hell away from me."

Neji was by this time practically doubled over with laughter. "The great Sasuke Uchiha, scared of a little spider? I thought you weren't afraid of anything."

"Yeah well you thought wrong." Snapped Sasuke. "Now get rid of it!"

Neji laughed again and approached the window. "Sorry, buddy, but the pathetic Uchiha is afraid of you. So I guess I'll have to let you go." He opened the window and deposited the spider outside. He then returned to where Sasuke was hiding.

"Sasuke? It's OK, it's gone."

"Has it really?" asked Sasuke in as tough a voice as he could muster.

"Yes. Really." Neji knelt down so he was face to face with Sasuke. "Now will you come back to bed? It's too early for this sort of thing. And if you recall, we didn't exactly get much sleep last night."

Sasuke looked at the floor in shame. "Actually, I want to talk to you about that. Look, um, what we did was-was fun and all, but I'm really confused right now and I don't know if I want to be getting into this, I mean, I'm just not sure."

Neji sighed. "To be honest, neither am I. I mean, I don't know what my friends would think. Not that I give a damn, not really, but I think they'd be shocked knowing I was - "

"Dating a guy?"

"Dating someone as mean as you." Neji finished. "Though after this spider incident - "

"Would you shut up about that!"

"You know, Sasuke, I could tell all your friends about that…."

Sasuke frowned. "I only have one friend. I'm not exactly Mr. Super-social, remember?"

"Yeah, but I can tell Shikamaru. Are you telling me he won't tease you?"

"Ugh. So there's nothing I can do to convince you to keep your mouth shut?"

"Hm." Thought Neji. "Perhaps there is one thing. But it doesn't involve me keeping my mouth shut…"

Neji proceeded to grab Sasuke by the shirt and pull him in for a kiss, locking their lips together and using their tongues to fight for dominance. Neji pulled Sasuke until he was on top of him, running his hands along the smooth skin of Sasuke's back, lifting his shirt. Sasuke reciprocated by brushing his hands through Neji's thick hair, as Neji began to get more passionate and intense, pulling Sasuke as close to him as possible, and gripping his shirt tightly, thus eliciting a moan from Sasuke.

Neji removed his mouth from Sasuke's, and began to kiss his neck, softly sucking the area just above his collarbone, while Sasuke ran his hand up Neji's legs, leaving Neji with a tingling feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"So…" panted Neji, as he broke off for air, "You wanna go back to bed?"

Sasuke exhaled. "You know, I'm not so tired any more."

--------------------------------------

Saturday, for everyone concerned, passed uneventfully. Itachi and Naruto spent most of the day plotting. They, of course, had no idea of what had been going on. After a number of inexplicably stupid ideas from Naruto, Itachi finally came up with something.

"Man! I totally forgot I did that! How could I be so foolish?"

Naruto looked puzzled. "Why can't you say stupid like the rest of us? Do you have some strange love for the word foolish?"

"Short answer: yes. Now listen up, Naruto…."

Sakura and Ino, too, had a boring weekend. They went to ballet class for an hour (Sakura was shown up by Ino as always), and afterwards made their way to the mall.

"Do you think this would be a cute outfit for the dance, Sakura-chan?" asked Ino casually. She was holding up a revolting gold sparkly number.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Ino, you know you can't wear gold. That makes you look washed out."

"But I can't wear red either. And I love red."

"So do I."

Ino giggled. "Yeah, you just don't know it clashes with your hair."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Shut _up_! It does not!"

"Oh, it so does. Well, how about black?"

Sakura shook her head. "Only whores and emos wear black to a high school dance."

"Well, what, then?"

Sakura groaned. "Well, I don't know. We don't even know if this dance is going to happen. That weird boy from senior year suggested it to Mr. Hatake, and he seemed to really go for it. But we still have to get it cleared with Tsunade."

"True." Ino pouted, looking glumly at her friend.

Sakura sighed. "Blue, Ino."

Ino looked delighted. "Blue it is! I'm going to find something right now!"

Hinata spent the majority of the day with Kiba and Shino. Spending time with two boys was an unattractive prospect for most, but Hinata had always enjoyed the company of boys rather than girls. Girls tended to be so bitchy. Ino and Sakura had invited her to go dress shopping for a (as far as Hinata was concerned) fictitious dance. Hinata had decided to pass, she didn't need to hear that sleeveless dresses made her arms look puffy. As if she would ever get a date for the so-called dance anyway. Boys liked her as a friend, nothing more.

Shikamaru was, as usual, bored out his mind. There was so little to do. The day was so long and pointless. Where the hell was Sasuke, anyway? Shikamaru had tried to call him twice, but neither time he had been at home. He didn't have a cellphone, and his brother had been most unhelpful. Itachi had told Shikamaru that Sasuke was at karate camp. Why Sasuke had chosen not to bother to tell Shikamaru this when he had asked what his plans for the weekend were, Shikamaru didn't bother to try and figure out. He settled for accidentally-on-purpose running into Ino Yamanaka being his activity for the weekend.

Sasuke and Neji spent the remainder of the day in much the same way as they had started it. With breaks for grabbing a drink, and doing odious work on their project. It was, thankfully, almost complete, and both Sasuke and Neji, no matter how much they tried to deny it, secretly thanked whatever force had caused them to end up in this situation.

Unfortunately, Sasuke was now beginning to feel something he didn't want to feel. Emotion. He was beginning to have even stronger feelings for Neji, and he knew he really liked him. And if they were going to start on some sort of weird secret pseudo-relationship, then Sasuke couldn't do what he had been planning to do for over a year. He didn't want to have to make a difficult choice. He knew he had to break this off now, before it was too late.

END OF CH 7

A/n: again, sorry for the late update. Please review anyway!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. If I did, do you really think I'd let Sasuke wear his shirt?

Warnings: SasuNeji as always. No action in this chap though, sorry.

A/N: Assuming I ever get this chapter up, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my frickin' stupid internet. It is still bust, and now that we are actually being banned from our accounts for bypassing the "banned sites" rule at school, I've effectively got no more options. Meh, I'll find a way….Anyways, sorry anyway, because I did say I'd update this fanfiction everyday, but that hasn't really happened. But I am trying.

Chapter 8

"Freedom! Sweet, sweet, freedom!" cried Neji as he burst out of the opened door on Monday morning.

"I can't believe this." The caretaker shook her head in dismay. "The two of you were trapped in there for the entire weekend?"

Sasuke nodded. "No food, nothing. We're just lucky we had water."

She sighed. "You sure are. Nothing like this has ever happened before."

Sasuke and Neji exchanged glances. "Yeah, you're probably right about that."

They made their way to reception, where they were granted permission to skip their first two classes because of their "troubling ordeal". Neji decided to go and see Naruto, who had a free class, and Sasuke said that he needed to find his brother, who was studying in the library at that moment.

The two had not spoken about what happened since they had been let out, or indeed, while they were still in, but they both knew that they needed to.

"Um…" began Neji tentatively.

"You know what?" interrupted Sasuke. "Let's talk about it later, OK?"

Neji looked surprised, but nodded. "Sure. I'll see you at lunch."

They exchanged once last glance, and headed off in their different directions.

----------------------------------------------------

Neji found his best friend sitting surrounded by a swarm of people. Sakura and Ino were on each of his sides, Hinata, Kiba and Shino were sitting opposite, and Rock Lee was perched on the table, flirting ineffectively with Sakura.

Naruto batted away a flying ball of paper, and greeted Neji.

"Neji! Where the hell were you all weekend? You promised you'd meet me at the movies on Saturday and you never turned up."

Hinata nodded in concurrence. "We were really worried about you, Neji…"

He raised his eyebrows. "Me? Well…..I was at the-the Math Olympiad!"

They all stared at him in dismay. "The what?" asked Sakura after several seconds of stunned silence.

"Yeah. It's for people who are really good at math. It's like a competition. I was representing Konoha High." He nodded and looked pleased with himself for his ability to lie through his teeth.

"Well." Said Naruto. "I don't know why we didn't think to check there."

Sakura giggled, but turned around angrily as she was hit in the head by a balled up piece of paper. "Who the hell is doing that?" she hissed. She looked around, but there was no one to be found.

All of a sudden, Sasuke entered the common room, which was where Naruto and his friends were spending their free class. He made a beeline for Shikamaru, shockingly enough.

"Hey Shika, you seen my brother anywhere around here?" he asked. "I need to talk to him and he's not in the library."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and sighed. "If you want me to tell you, maybe you tell me where the hell you were this weekend? Itachi told me you were at karate camp? Somehow that doesn't seem to ring true."

Sasuke mentally cursed Itachi for his ridiculous lies. "No, no, it's true. I'm…going away to a specialist martial arts school next year, and this weekend was like an induction."

These words caught the ears of Naruto and friends. "Hey, you guys, looks like the emo freak was MIA this weekend too." Said Ino spitefully. "I wonder…." She lost her train of thought, too distracted by Shikamaru.

Neji was glad Sasuke was a good liar. Because of course he was lying.

Sasuke growled. "Well, where is he? You said you knew where Itachi was."

Shikamaru grinned. "He's behind the lockers with Deidara throwing balled up pieces of paper at Naruto and his friends."

---------------------------------------------

"So, little brother, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" asked Itachi as they sat down alone in a secluded corner of the library. Having restrained Naruto from beating Itachi, he had managed to smuggle his brother safely out of the common room and away to somewhere they could talk in private.

"Yeah. Um…well, you know how you're my legal guardian and all, and you have to say so if I want to leave home…"

"Huh?" Frowned Itachi. "What are you on, Sasuke? You're not leaving home until you go away to college, right?"

Sasuke gulped. "Well…the thing is….I got this letter from the Suna High School. It's a specialist martial arts school, and they're offering me a full scholarship for senior year. Do you remember the scout that was at the last competition?"

"Oh. You mean the one where - "

"Yes, Itachi. Well, I didn't tell anybody this, but he talked to me afterwards, and he said it wasn't too late to apply for a scholarship. It's taken a while, over a year, but he got back to me."

Itachi didn't comprehend. "So let me get this straight? You want to move to Suna for the next year?"

"Well." Said Sasuke uncomfortably. "If I go…I'm-I'm not coming back, nii-san."

"What? Why?"

"Well I'll visit, for holidays, and things like that….but they say I can get into any college I want if I go to that high school. I have to think about my future, right? And...I guess that means I can go to the one just outside Suna. It sounds really good, Itachi. Don't you think it sounds like an amazing opportunity?"

Itachi's eyes widened. "But you can't go! What about Ne - "

He caught himself just in time.

"What?" said Sasuke in a dangerous voice. "What was that?"

"Nothing. It was nothing. It's just…Sasuke, you can't just leave!"

"Why not? It's not like you need me here. You don't even care about me, right? All I am is an adversary to you, that's all I ever have been. And if you say I can't go, then I'll do it without your permission. I'm going and that's final." Snapped Sasuke. He stood up and walked briskly out of the library.

Itachi gulped. "Uh oh. The plan is falling apart!"

-------------------------------------

Neji and Naruto were left alone when Sakura and Ino decided to spend the rest of their free class trying on different clothes in the ladies'. Deidara and Sasori from senior year had decided to leave them be, and the rest of the gang had gone to study together in a disused classroom…

"So, Neji, do you understand this math homework at all? I mean, if you are a math olympian…" said Naruto.

"Sure." Neji replied. "You just need to equate that to zero." He indicated.

"But I don't get how you get the capacity." moaned Naruto.

Neji sighed. He was very tired. He and Sasuke had not done much in the way of sleeping on any of the three nights they had been trapped in that room together. Why bother when there were so much more fun things they could do?

"Well once you know the value of x you can substitute it into this equation here." He said sullenly.

"OK...thanks." said Naruto. Neji was perfectly aware that Naruto still had no idea what he was talking about, but let it go. Naruto was never going to be the brightest person in the world.

"So, Neji, tell me about the Math Olympiad. Was it fun? Did you meet loads of new people there?"

"Naruto, there was no damn Olympiad!" cried Neji, exasperated.

"What?!?" cried Naruto in mock surprise. "That is totally new to me! I repeat, I did not know about it beforehand!"

"What?" said Neji, confused.

"Uh…never mind. So what were you doing?"

Neji decided that honesty was probably the best policy. Well, mostly honesty. "I was trapped in the computer lab all weekend with Sasuke Uchiha." He said flatly.

"What?" laughed Naruto. "How'd you manage to do that?"

"I don't know, somebody locked us in. Probably thought it would be funny."

Naruto frowned. "So why didn't you two come up with some way to get out? You are probably the two smartest people in our year. Surely you must have had a phone between you."

"Sasuke doesn't carry a phone and mine was out of battery. So, no."

"Well, didn't you try shouting? You know, to see if anyone was there still?"

"No one was."

"Well." Said Naruto. "You are silly. That room is full of computers. You could have easily sent an email to someone telling them to come and get you."

Neji sat there in stunned silence. Never again would he think of himself as smarter than Naruto.

----------------------------------

END OF CHAPTER 8

A/N: Mwa ha ha! Aren't I evil?


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

Warnings: shonen ai, and all.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! You're all being so nice to me! I have found that I can update from my library, but the only day I can get there that it's open is Saturday, so it's going to be weekly updates from now on. Oh, and BTW, Sasuke/Neji is my new obsession too! SasuNaru and ItaSasu does get rather boring….

Craziness Chapter 9

The bell rang for lunch. Sasuke sighed and got up from his seat. It had been Geography, and Sasuke had not paid the slightest bit of attention to what had been said. As if he needed to know what glaciation was anyway. His mind had been so distracted, he couldn't concentrate at all. He was supposed to be meeting Neji this lunchtime.

He nervously approached their meeting place. He went over in his mind what he was going to say, again and again. _I'm sorry, Neji, but I'm moving to Suna. No, I'm not coming back. Ever. Yep, next Thursday. My dorm is already set up. _

"Sasuke!" he heard a voice. It was Neji.

"Hey…Neji." Said Sasuke, resigned to his fate. It was just too damn bad that Neji was looking especially hot today, with his long brown hair all windswept, and his cheeks pink from the breeze, and…..no. Mustn't think like that. Not now that he had to do this.

"So, Sasuke, I think we need to talk about what happened at the weekend, you know." Said Neji. Well, that was no surprise. Neji wanted to talk about their "relationship".

"OK. I think we should go somewhere more private, you know…" muttered Sasuke.

"Sure." Said Neji, leading Sasuke into an empty classroom. "So what do you want to do about this, Sasuke?" he asked, after having made sure the door was firmly closed.

"I haven't got a clue." Said Sasuke. _I don't want to leave, that's for sure. But this isn't a choice I have to make. It's my future._

"Right." Neji sat down next to Sasuke, making the normally oh-so-pale Uchiha boy blush. "Well, I don't know about you, but I kinda had fun at the weekend, and I'm not ashamed to admit that." He said bluntly.

"Yeah...me too." Said Sasuke, not over-enthusiastically.

"I mean, if you don't want to take this any further, then that's your decision. Just know that…I really like you, Sasuke." Neji said softly, his fingers gently brushing against Sasuke's arm.

Sasuke practically choked. "You-you do?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know. Because I'm cold. And arrogant."

"No you're not. You're warmer than you let on. I know you have a sensitive side, Sasuke. I used to be like you, you know. Even as a child. Then I met Naruto, and he showed me that, sometimes, you have to let people in. I've never truly let down my walls, but I've gotten a lot better. And I think you could too, you just have to try and trust someone."

"Well, I don't think there is anyone to trust. Shikamaru's my only friend, and our friendship isn't based on mutual trust and respect, it's based on mutual sarcasm and distaste for everyone else."

"What about Itachi?"

"Itachi! Why in the name of hell would I ever trust him? He's up to something even now, I just know it."

"You think?" asked Neji skeptically.

"You really wanna know what I think?"

"Uh…what?"

"I think it was him that locked us in that computer lab. Why else would he have told Shika that I was at karate camp? I mean, if he wasn't behind it, how could he know where I was, and therefore have a lie prepared? He would have simply said, "I don't know, Shikamaru, he never came back from school on Friday." Not "He's at karate camp" without a moment's hesitation."

Neji frowned. "That actually makes good sense. Thank goodness for Shikamaru."

"But, the thing is, why would he do that to us?"

Neji shrugged. "I haven't a clue. Let's not dwell on it. The point is, what do you want to do about this? Just…forget the whole thing?"

Sasuke gulped. "No. No, Neji, I don't just want to forget it, but…"

"But what?"

"The thing is, I-I - "

"WHAT?!?"

"There's something I need to tell you." Said Sasuke hesitantly. The moment of truth. And then Sakura burst in.

"Neji-kun!"

Neji sighed. "Sakura…..chan."

"What is it, Haruno?" snapped Sasuke.

"Not that's it's any of your business, Uchiha, but there happens to be a dance next Friday that I want to tell Neji about." She said, tossing her hair in indignation.

Sasuke folded his arms. "We already know. My older brother convinced Mr. Hatake to organize it."

Sakura looked dumbfounded. "Itachi? What could he possibly do to convince sensei to organize a dance for us?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Maybe you could ask Iruka."

Sakura blushed. "That cute teacher's assistant? What's he got to do with it?"

Neji interposed here. "Um, Sakura, is that all you came to tell us?"

Sakura nodded vigorously, clearly over-excited. "Ooh, actually, one more thing. Temari from the year above is fighting with TenTen over Itachi, for some unknown reason. They had a bet, and TenTen lost. So she wants to know if you'll go with her. To the dance, that is. Since she can't go with Itachi, and all."

Neji raised his eyebrows. "An older girl, huh? Interesting."

Sakura beamed. "So you'll do it?"

Neji pretended to consider for a moment, then …"No."

"Oh! Why?"

"Never you mind."

"Oooh!" she squealed. "Neji, you've got another girl in mind! I must warn you, I'm taken!" she laughed. "Anyway, I'd better go! See you later, Neji-kun!" she ran out of the room, still hyper.

"Thank God for that." Muttered Neji. "Now, where were we…."

Sasuke was not listening. He had been distracted by the mention of Temari, who was the sister of his new room-mate at Suna. He wondered why their parents had not chosen to send them to the same school, but shrugged it off.

"Well? Sasuke, are you listening to me?"

"Um…what?"

"Sasuke, you were just going to tell me something." Said Neji, his hands once again brushing against Sasuke, except this time they were brushing the black bangs out of his porcelain face.

"Oh…yeah. That. Um, I'm sorry, Neji, but I don't think I can." Said Sasuke.

Neji grinned. "Sure you can. You just need a little incentive." And with that, he pulled Sasuke into a searing kiss, the likes of which Sasuke was sure was more likely to be found in the movies than in a disused high school classroom. His own body responded quickly to the gentle touches Neji was giving him, and pretty soon ended up running his hands all over Neji's chest and along his back. He moaned lightly into Neji's mouth, feeling Neji entwine their fingers together and squeeze his hand tightly.

They spent as long as they could with their lips pressed together in this heated embrace, but after a while, they needed some oxygen. They broke apart, and Sasuke stared into Neji's pearly eyes, as Neji looked back into Sasuke's own onyx ones, his face lined with worry. Damn it.

"Yeah, I just wanted to ask if you wanted to….go to the dance with me?"

Neji's face lit up into a smile, and he pulled Sasuke into a tight hug, almost crushing the Uchiha's poor lungs.

_Damn. That wasn't what I was supposed to say!_

-------------------------------

"What?!"

"I know!"

Naruto furrowed his brows helplessly. "This is a disaster, Itachi! Suna? That's like, two hours away!"

"I know!" repeated Itachi.

"Well, he is coming back, right? I mean, who's to say he can't come back?"

Itachi looked glum. "He's not, I asked. He's staying with an acquaintance for senior year, then when high school's done, he's going to the college there. He's gonna stay in dorms."

Naruto spluttered. "But-but he can't move, damn it! What about Neji?!"

Itachi shrugged. "Look, we don't even know if our plan worked, Naruto. Sasuke certainly hasn't let on anything of the sort. What about Neji?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nope. He admitted that he and Sasuke were trapped together, but he didn't say that anything happened between them. It would be useful if they weren't such damn good liars, both of them."

Itachi gasped. "Oh fuck a duck!"

Naruto frowned. "What?"

"Sasuke! Shikamaru!"

"What about them?"

"Shikamaru came to the house, remember? I spun him some line about Sasuke being away for the weekend?"

Naruto nodded. "Sure."

"Well they were talking earlier, and I heard Shikamaru tell Sasuke what I said!"

"Um…I'm not sure I get it."

"Naruto! If Sasuke knows I said that, he'll know I had something to do with him getting locked in there! Why else would I make up something like that?"

Naruto now gasped. "So Sasuke knows we were behind it. Do you think there's any chance he hasn't told Neji?"

Itachi shook his head. "Slim to none, I expect."

"Well that's certainly not good."

"Naruto. This plan has sucked from start to finish. We need a new plan."

"OK. What?"

"How about this: The Make Sasuke Stay in Konoha Plan. Good, ne?"

"I like it." Agreed Naruto.

END OF CHAPTER 9

A/N: OK, I realize this isn't Saturday...But the important thing is, my internet works, which means life is good again! For how long, I don't know...But anyway, thanks for reading and putting up with the slowness of updating and my internet in general. Please review, I'd love to know what you think!


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Don't own it. Hey, a girl can dream.

A/N: Hmm…I don't have anything to say. For the first time, like, ever. Well, on with fic, I guess!

Craziness chapter 10

Naruto made his way to History, his last class of the day. It had been two days since Itachi had told him about Sasuke's plans to move to Suna, and so far they had accomplished literally nothing. Naruto was beginning to think he and Itachi weren't such a great team after all. But he had scheduled a meeting for them that night at Itachi's house, where they would first work on Naruto's still abominable math skills, and then Itachi and Sasuke would work on their fighting in their back yard. Naruto was to wait until this was done and then he and Itachi would plot.

He wandered vaguely into History, thinking more about the impending end of year exams than anything else. They were due to commence after the dance, which was to take place next Friday, nine days away. According to Itachi, by this time Sasuke would already be gone. He had it arranged so that he was allowed to finish junior year at Suna, after all, the exams were the same at every high school. Naruto was completely at sea as to why Sasuke would want to leave as soon as this, he was essentially just packing up his entire life and leaving everyone behind. Everyone being Itachi, Shikamaru and Neji. But if he ever understood the inner workings of the mind of Sasuke Uchiha, he swore, he'd be the greatest psychiatrist on Earth.

Meanwhile, he was panicking about failing his exams. He had not even begun to study, and Itachi was despairing with his lack of ability at math, which was by far his worst subject. Though his other marks weren't exactly anything to write home about.

"Naruto Uzumaki! Are you listening?" asked Kakashi.

"Yes, Kakashi." Mumbled Naruto.

"First of all, wipe that dopey expression off your face. Second, turn to the chapter we're reading." Said Kakashi.

It was all Naruto could do not to snap back with "what's the problem, sensei, Iruka giving you a hard time?". He refrained, however, for fear of getting his ass kicked by a teacher.

He sighed. When did life get so complicated?

------------------------------------

Sasuke was sitting in the library, practically banging his head against the desk. The past two days had consisted of brief trysts between him and Neji behind the language labs, and all-around suspicion from Itachi and Shika. His life just wasn't going according to plan. What on Earth had possessed him to tell Neji he would go with him to the dance? Was he high?

He knew that if he didn't tell Neji soon, it would just get harder and harder to leave. That was, in fact, the whole reason why he had chosen to leave Konoha before the end of the semester. He didn't want to spend any more time with Neji than he had to. Did he really think he would be able to go if they spent the summer together? He sighed to himself, wondering how he had gotten so messed up in the course of few short days. He wasn't a complete idiot, he had known he had a thing for Neji, but he never expected anything to come of it. And now that it had….

_Come on, Uchiha. _He snapped at himself. _Pull yourself together. Since when did you start caring about others?_

But there was no denying it, he _did _care about Neji. Too much. Well. He would just have to break this thing off ASAP.

He made his way out, but unfortunately, was accosted by the person he wanted to see least of all.

--------------------------------

Neji found Sasuke as he was emerging from the library. _Man, does he look hot today, _thought Neji idly to himself.

"Hey, Sasuke." He said in his usual disinterested tone.

"Neji." Said Sasuke shortly.

"Are you OK?"

"Fine." Said Sasuke, with a hint of bitterness in his voice.

"Sasuke, you don't seem OK….." Neji's tone was worried, but to Sasuke's ears all it was was false.

"Look. Just leave me alone, OK!"

"Huh?" said Neji, hurt.

"I need some time alone, all right!" said Sasuke angrily. "Now let me go." He broke away from Neji and walked as fast as he could towards French.

_What was that about? _Thought Neji. _Is he having second thoughts about this whole thing? Oh, it's probably my own stupid fault for pushing too hard. I'm normally pretty in control of my emotions, but when I fall in love, I just-_

Wait. What the hell had he just thought?

---------------------------------------

"Ow!" an anguished cry emanated from Sasuke as he fell hard on to the grass.

"Well, you should have been paying attention." Said Itachi. They had been fighting for around half an hour, practicing for Itachi's upcoming competition. Itachi was soundly beating Sasuke, not that Sasuke hadn't got a few blows in.

Naruto had been forced to watch, and was sitting on the bench in almost awe. _He's so amazing…._

Itachi looked over at Naruto, who was, once again, staring at Sasuke. It seemed that every time he looked over at Naruto, the boy was looking at Sasuke, with a blush on his face.

Itachi shrugged it off, making a mental note to deal with it later. Unfortunately, while he had been distracted by this, Sasuke had gotten the upper hand and was now punishing him fiercely. Itachi defended himself, but had lost his previous confidence, and was now most definitely losing. Oh well. 17 bouts to 1 wasn't exactly a terrible score…but hardly his best. After some crippling blows, Itachi found himself lying on his back, staring up into the face of his younger brother, who was pinning his wrists on to the grass, watching Itachi writhe beneath him.

"OK." Said Sasuke. "I won one. We're done." He got up off Itachi and strolled over to the house to claim refreshments.

Itachi made his way to the bench where Naruto was sitting, taking the seat next to him. He wiped the sweat off his forehead, and removed his shirt, which was sticking to his chest. He didn't bother to look at Naruto at all. Perhaps if he had he would have noted Naruto's expression.

"So, did you enjoy?" said Itachi, somewhat coldly.

"Uh…yeah. You were great." Said Naruto almost nervously.

"Oh really? Didn't seem like you were watching what _I _was doing a hell of a lot of the time." Said Itachi, unable to keep the anger in his voice from rising.

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto, genuinely confused.

"Naruto, every time I even glanced over here, you were staring in awe at Sasuke. Now tell me the truth here. Because if it's what I think it is, we have a real problem."

"I-I don't - "

"Naruto, this plan is never going to work if you have a crush on Sasuke. We're supposed to be getting him together with Neji. You know, your closest friend, remember?"

Naruto frowned. "Yeah, Itachi, I remember. So I guess you just don't trust me enough not to screw up the plan, right?"

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, well, if you like Sasuke, you can forget about us working together any more."

Naruto growled. "What the hell is your problem?!? It's none of your damn business who I like. And even if I do like Sasuke, it's not like you'd care anyway!" he shouted, feeling tears sting the corners of his eyes.

"Fine. Whatever. I don't give a damn. I have to go. I have a date."

Naruto gulped. "You have a what?"

"A date."

"With who?" cried Naruto.

"Deidara, not that it's any business of yours." Said Itachi icily.

"Fine. That's fine. Be like that. Be all cold and mean. See if I care."

"I will." Snapped Itachi.

"Fine."

"Fine."

And with that, Naruto stormed out of the Uchiha house.

"Oh, and you can find yourself another damn math tutor, you moron!" shouted Itachi to him as he went.

Itachi sat back down. What the hell was that? Why had Naruto just flown off the handle like that? He was supposed to be helping Itachi. Itachi tried to remind himself that this was not about him, it was about Sasuke and Neji, and getting them together. Which, at the moment, was looking more ominous than ever. How had everything fallen apart so quickly? Itachi berated himself for being so stupid. It was he, not Naruto, who had flown off the handle. Accusing him of liking Sasuke. Why was he getting so worked up about it?

He shrugged, and made his way indoors. He had to get ready….to spend the night alone.

END OF CHAPTER 10

A/N: Hope you liked this one, I had a lot of people randomly falling out. And I'm sorry if this fic is becoming too Itachi and Naruto centric, it's really just meant to be SasuNeji. Ah, well. I'll fix it next time. Please review!


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: don't own Naruto.

A/N: Is it true that a Naruto yaoi DVD is coming out in Japan? If anyone knows the answer, please tell me!

Warnings: shonen ai and language.

Chapter 11

Wednesday. Fucking _Wednesday. _One day from now and Sasuke would be in Suna. And, yep, he still hadn't exactly told Neji this information. The only people that knew were Itachi and Naruto, though why Naruto knew was beyond Sasuke. All he knew was that his brother and Naruto had some sort of weird dysfunctional relationship going on that had fallen apart somewhat the previous week, when Naruto had stormed out of their house. Oh well. It wasn't as if Sasuke cared about Naruto. He could do whatever the fuck he liked with Itachi. Naruto was the last person Sasuke gave a damn about at that particular moment.

He lay back on his bed, and stared at his ceiling, which was black, and closed his eyes. He had been lying in his bedroom listening to maudlin rock for the past hour and a half. Itachi, unsurprisingly, hadn't noticed that anything was wrong.

"_Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage…." _Sasuke mumbled Smashing Pumpkins lyrics gloomily to himself. He briefly glanced at his digital clock, which read 6:32 pm. He lay back again. This was going to be a long night.

------------------------------------

It was a pretty miserable Wednesday for Neji Hyuuga, too. He had not spoken to Sasuke for nearly a week, and it was beginning to get him down. Normally if something was bothering, he could just immerse himself in his work and it would go away, but that didn't seem to be working as effectively as it normally did.

He was currently in his library, reading his favourite book, A Clockwork Orange. He never got tired of it. But he couldn't help feeling that something was wrong. It was a nagging, unusual feeling, that there was something going on. Something he couldn't control. He didn't like it at all.

He sighed, and got up. No amount of sitting in the library reading and listening to Interpol and being moody in general was going to cure this. He was going to have it out with Sasuke. He was sick of being treated like he didn't matter, and unfortunately he suspected that the Uchiha was not the most selfless person in the world.

------------------------------

Sasuke got out of bed and strolled to the shops. Perhaps a bit of unnecessary shopping would take his mind off the situation. But then again, perhaps not.

"Sasuke!" He recognized that voice anywhere. It was that of that damn meddlesome dobe, Naruto Uzumaki.

"What do you want, Uzumaki? Shouldn't you be having a bitching match with my brother?"

Naruto, though he went slightly pink, was not deterred.

"Sasuke! Look, I know you and I have never really spoken, but I want to talk to you."

"Oh yeah? About what?"

Naruto frowned. "Not here. Come on, there's a bench outside the park."

Sasuke gloomily followed Naruto to the park. Nothing good was going to come out of this conversation, but since he couldn't possibly feel worse than he did already, there was no harm in trying.

"Sasuke, I know I don't need to tell you that I know about you and Neji."

"Yeah, I guess you don't."

"So what the hell? Are you really just gonna up and leave tomorrow without telling him? How the hell do you think he's gonna feel when you go?"

"Honestly, Uzumaki, I couldn't care less. I don't feel anything for Neji. The end."

"But you're lying!"

"Don't tell me how I feel. It really pisses me off." Sasuke rose from the bench, and made to leave, but he felt something grabbing his sleeve preventing him from doing so. He gave Naruto the most evil glare he could muster under the circumstances. Which was pretty evil. "I suggest you let me go right now, or you will be face down on the gravel before you can say "ramen"".

"Fine." Said Naruto, resigned to the fact that he was not going to get anywhere. "Good luck in Suna, Sasuke. None of us will really miss you, so don't feel like you have to visit." He added bitterly.

"Hn." Muttered Sasuke, leaving a fuming Naruto in his wake.

_Mental note to self: Never shop._

------------------------------------

Neji had been wondering around for over an hour. It had been a pleasant June evening, but now that it was half past eight it was getting dark, and getting a little cold. He looked up at the sky. He could see the stars against the deep blue sky, and wondered what Sasuke was doing at that very moment.

He turned on to the Uchiha complex to see a light on in the kitchen, and could see the outline of Sasuke's weird older brother dancing while cooking.

He shrugged his shoulders, and turned to leave. Wait. No. He couldn't leave. Not now. He couldn't explain, but he felt like this was his last chance to tell Sasuke how he felt.

----------------------------------------

Sasuke was on the roof of his house, staring into the night sky. He tried not to remember that weekend he and Neji had spent together in the computer lab, when Neji had taught him about astronomy. He had decided that he was going to tell Neji he was leaving. It was only fair. And it was the only way to prove to himself that he didn't really have feelings for the Hyuuga. Tomorrow was Thursday. He was going to tell Neji at the end of the school day. And afterwards, he would collect his belongings, which were already packed, and Itachi would drive him to Suna. And there he would stay.

Perhaps he would visit, upon occasion. After all, he would miss Shikamaru a little, the two had been friends for a good while. And Itachi would be mad if he never visited. And after high school? He hoped to go to the college just outside Suna. Perhaps he could get some sort of scholarship, if he did well enough at the high school, that is.

But the truth was, Sasuke had never really known what it was he wanted out of life. Itachi would be graduating high school in less than a month, and he was going to study math and business at Konoha College. He knew what he wanted. Money, and lots of it, that was what Itachi always said. Sasuke rolled his eyes. That wasn't what he wanted. He already had enough of that.

What he really wanted was-

"Sasuke."

He didn't move. He didn't even have to turn around to know who his visitor was.

"Neji."

"Yeah. I want to talk to you, Sasuke."

Sasuke grimaced. "Yeah, like I haven't heard that one too many times already today."

"I want to know what the hell is wrong with you. We were fine. But then you just started ignoring me. You wouldn't talk to me at school, you would answer my calls, and you won't - you won't even look at me!"

Sasuke turned around. "Yeah. Because that would just make this harder."

"Make what harder? Would you just tell me what the fuck is going on and stop being so damn cryptic?!"

"OK. What's going on is I'm going to live in Suna tomorrow, and I don't know if I'll ever be coming back."

Silence.

Neji looked utterly speechless. "You're joking."

"I don't joke."

"You have to be. You can't be moving to Suna."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because! W-what about the end of the school year?"

Sasuke sighed. "I'll finish the year at my new school." He snapped, his words tainted with his bitterness.

"Why?" choked Neji, feeling stings in his eyes and a lump in his throat.

"Because. I need to be there. I need to focus on my future." Even as Sasuke spoke the words he knew he didn't believe them.

"Your future? What kind of excuse is that?" cried Neji. "You just want to leave me. Because you're so emotionally stunted you can't handle your feelings!"

Sasuke shook his head. "I – I can't stay in Konoha just for you, Neji. I can't."

Neji was more angry than upset. Damn, he had always been so in control of his emotions. But better to scream at Sasuke for ten minutes than silently walk away and cry himself to sleep that night. Or so he thought.

"Then stay for Shikamaru! Stay for Itachi!"

"No. It's not worth it. Not even now." Sasuke words were dripping with the emotion he was trying to keep from the surface.

"Like hell." Said Neji bitterly. He was now merely inches away from Sasuke. "You can't handle what you felt for me, so you're running. You're running like a scared little girl."

Neji half expected Sasuke to punch him. But no. They stood looking at each other for what seemed like an eternity, the venom and disdain of their words still hanging in the air.

Then Sasuke grabbed Neji by his hair, and pulled him towards himself, crushing Neji's lips against his own. Neji had no idea how to respond, but Sasuke gave him little choice. He roughly tugged on Neji's long hair as he ground himself against Neji's body. Neji could practically feel the lust emanating from Sasuke's body. He was in a brief moment of indecision as to whether to push Sasuke away, but quickly made up his mind. He pushed Sasuke so hard the Uchiha fell back on to the hard gravel of the roof. He ran his hands over Sasuke's body as vigorously as he could manage, earning several moans of pleasure from Sasuke. He continued his ministrations as Sasuke teased him by licking his neck. Neji moaned, pulling Sasuke as close as he could go. They stayed in this passionate embrace for as long as they could stand before getting so hot that Neji could no longer stand it.

He pulled away slightly, looking at Sasuke's face in the moonlight. His perfectly ivory face was tinged with a slight blush, and his pouting red lips looked delicious. His breath was short and erratic, and as he stared back into Neji's eyes, Neji knew what he wanted.

"So?" he asked. "It could be the perfect way to say goodbye."

Sasuke looked at Neji. He knew what he needed.

"…No. I can't."

"W-what?"

"If we…you know…"

"Yeah?"

"Then I'll never be able to leave."

That was all Neji needed to hear. Sasuke had made his decision. Neji just didn't matter. He just wasn't enough.

Neji silently walked away. He didn't feel the need to turn back to look at Sasuke one more time. Even though he knew full well that would be the last time he would ever see him.

"_Time is never time at all  
You can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth  
And our lives are forever changed  
We will never be the same_"

END OF CH 11

A/N: You know what is such a coincidence? When I wrote that it was 6:32 in Sasuke's room, I didn't even look at my clock but when I did it was exactly 6:32! How weird is that? BTW, all lyrics are Smashing Pumpkins, don't own, don't sue!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

A/N: Thanks for all your reviews!

Chapter 12

Neji woke up on Thursday morning to the sound of his clock radio. It was playing the most abysmal song he had ever heard, and wouldn't shut the hell up, so he decided to throw it out of the window. Neji was not in a good mood.

He made his way downstairs. Hinata was waiting for him; they normally shared a lift to school.

"Uh, morning, Neji." She said shyly.

"Morning, Hinata." He said glumly.

"Are you OK, Neji? You-you seem a little upset."

"I'm fine." He sighed. Could he even be bothered to pretend to be fine? He had barely been able to get out of bed. Could he really stand going to school, where all that anyone would be talking about was the impending dance the following night? And another thing that was worrying him: had Sasuke left yet?

He was not long in doubt. When he arrived at school, he saw Itachi, Sasuke's older brother, pull up in his car alone. He resisted the urge to ask Itachi if Sasuke had left, but only just.

He left Hinata and departed for homeroom, where, unsurprisingly, the dance was the only topic of conversation on anyone's minds.

"No, you can't!" cried Sakura. "I'm having my hair like that! You'll just have to wear yours down." She pouted.

Ino shrugged. "Fine. Mine's still going to look better than yours."

"Oh, yeah right! You wish, Ino!"

Neji greeted them with no real enthusiasm and sat down beside Naruto. Naruto refrained from talking to him, but kept stealing glances in his direction, as if to try to will Neji to talk to him. Neji gave in, but not quite in the way that Naruto had been hoping.

"You know, Naruto, you can look at me all day, and I'm still not going to talk about it." Said Neji.

Naruto made the mistake of playing dumb. "Talk about what?"

Neji gave him a sour look. "You KNOW what."

Naruto giggled nervously. "Oh…right. I suppose there's not too much point pretending I don't know, is there?"

"There's no point at all, Naruto." Replied Neji coldly.

"Well, you're still going to come to the dance aren't you? I mean, we always said we'd come, even if we didn't have dates. And TenTen might still want to - "

"I am not going with TenTen, so get that idea out of your head." Snapped Neji. "I don't even know if I'll come."

Naruto looked pained. "But you have to come! Who I am I going to hang out with if you don't come?"

Neji glared. "There's a whole lot of people, Naruto. Sakura, Ino, Choji, Hina, Lee, Shino, Kiba, pretty much anyone. Itachi Uchiha, perhaps."

Naruto blushed at the mention of this last name, but was undeterred. "OK, well, the less said about him the better, but that's not the point. I'll only have fun if you're there."

Neji sighed. He was not going to win this argument, and, frankly, he was not in the mood to try. "Fine. If I show up, will you get off my back?"

Naruto beamed. "Absolutely."

"So what is going on between you and Itachi? Because I'll only come if you tell me."

Naruto's turn to glare. "Nothing. Nothing at all. And that's not even a lie."

--------------------------------------

Thursday passed quickly. It was normally Neji's favourite day, but today had hardly been good. He was eternally grateful when the school bell rang at half past three and he made his way back to his house.

What was he going to do that evening? Homework? No, nothing was due on Friday. Watch TV? Nope, nothing there. Going to someone's house? Ugh. He could barely stand the thought. So he was going to have to do a Sasuke and spend the night in his room listening to whiney music and contemplating the suckiness of life in general.

He climbed on to his bed and turned on the stereo as loud as it would go, singing very badly along.

Tomorrow was the big day. The day of reckoning. He didn't think he could stand going to this dance. So many happy people were going to be there, and he was going to have to pretend to be one of them. Naruto would be high as a kite all night, and there was no doubt in Neji's mind that Ino and Sakura would be as annoying as was humanly possible. The two girls from senior year, too, were unlikely to be a lot of fun. Lee? Neji visibly shuddered. No thank you.

Shino? Too creepy.

Hinata? Not creepy enough.

Shikamaru? Boring.

Choji? Weird and irritating.

Naruto? Even Naruto….

Neji gulped as he realized he had only ever met one person that had really understood him. Only one person he had ever met that he could have a real conversation with. Someone intelligent. Someone who he didn't feel bad showing his emotions to. Someone who he could stand to tell things about himself that he would ordinarily never tell anyone.

And he had gone. And Neji would probably never see him again.

Neji spent the rest of the night contemplating this bitter thought.

----------------------------------

Sakura Haruno's mother ascended her stairs as fast as she could. She couldn't swear to it, but she thought she had heard a scream. And that was never good. Mrs. Haruno was worried; what if one of the girls needed to be taken to the hospital? Just how crowded would it be at 6:30 on a Friday evening?

She burst into the bathroom, where one of her daughter's friends was crying on the toilet, the others crowded around her. The girl in question was one of Sakura' friends that Mrs. Haruno had seen numerous times before, a blonde, busty, confident girl.

"Oh dear! What happened?" she cried, approaching the scene.

"Mother!" exclaimed Sakura. "Did I or did I not tell you to wait downstairs?!"

"Well, I heard a scream, Sakura, honey…."

"We are having a crisis, Mrs. Haruno!" cut in another female, this one a tall brunette with her hair tied elegantly up in buns. "Ino spilt foundation on her dress!"

Mrs. Haruno raised her eyebrows. "Is that it? I thought someone had died up here!"

Ino gave her a deadly look, her eyes filled with tears. "I wish I _were _dead!" she exclaimed melodramatically. "I almost wasn't going to come! My date cancelled on me…and now this! It's too much!" she cried out again, sobbing into her ruined dress.

This was the scene an hour and a half before the girls of Konoha High were due to leave for the dance. Many of the junior and several of the senior girls had congregated at Sakura's house. Sakura's three bathrooms were packed with females anxious about zits, dresses, make up, shoes, the works. Sakura's mother, who was quite familiar with the whims of her daughter, had, she thought, prepared adequately, but she had anticipated nothing like this. Several girls had already been injured fighting over various hair products, and one girl had hurt her ankle attempting to run about in her stilettos, an extremely foolish thing to do, in Mrs. Haruno's opinion.

And now on top of that, this! Sakura's mother shook her head. It was bad enough that once the girls had left, she would have to clean products she didn't even know existed from her bathrooms, but now she had to deal with hysterics.

"Now, calm down, dear." She said diplomatically. "I'm sure Sakura has something that you could borrow…" she rooted in her daughter's closet and procured a dress so ugly it made some of the girls gasp in terror. Sakura herself whitened and Ino let out a tiny scream.

"Now, this dress was given to Sakura by an aunt, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you were to borrow it, dear." Said Mrs. Haruno.

"Um…" Ino began, before she was cut off by Sakura.

"She'd love to! Wouldn't you, Ino?" she said through gritted teeth, glaring warningly at her friend.

"Uh…sure." Ino looked on the brink of tears (again), but took the monstrosity from Sakura willingly.

_Girls are so difficult… _thought Sakura's mother, shaking her head, and retiring from the bathroom.

---------------------------------------------

Neji fixed the top button of his shirt unwillingly. He glared at his own reflection, wondering how he had been coerced into doing this. He glanced at the clock. 7:29. Just fifteen minutes before it was time to leave. Naruto had said that Iruka would be chaperoning, and was willing to pick him up at quarter to.

Neji sighed, and sat down. It was going to be a long night.

-------------------------------------------

"So…this is the bathroom."

"Uh huh."

"And here's where we keep the mail. And this is the window."

"Window? Like, singular?"

"I'm afraid so. Dormitories at this high school aren't exactly five star hotels, Sasuke."

Sasuke grunted vaguely. This was not looking good. He had been thinking of Neji all day, and the situation was not improving. Perhaps…

"And that's the fridge."

"Great. What do you guys eat?"

The red haired boy shrugged. "We get given food here. We only use the fridge for extra stuff."

Sasuke flopped down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. This ceiling was not black, as he should have liked. It was white. Well, more grey, with bits of plaster peeling off. Pleasant.

"So." Said Gaara. "Do you want to go to dinner now?"

Sasuke sighed, and turned away from his new roommate to face the wall. He was in no mood to eat, much less make small talk with these people. He was here now for one reason only. And that was because he could not stand to spend the summer in Konoha knowing that he was leaving. Why this thought pained him so much he couldn't imagine. All he knew was that he did not like being this in touch with his feelings. And he never wanted to be again. Or so he thought.

"Let me guess." Said Gaara. "There's someone, isn't there? Someone in Konoha who you've left behind?"

Sasuke didn't feel there was much point on lying anymore. "Yes." He said simply.

"Sasuke, you're here for a reason." Said Gaara firmly. "You're here to make a new life for yourself and to reach your full potential."

Sasuke shrugged.

"Love isn't everything, you know." Said Gaara philosophically.

The next ten minutes passed in silence. Until Sasuke leapt out of his bed and ran to the door.

"The hell it isn't." He shot back, before slamming the door behind him.

END OF CHAPTER TWELVE

A/N: the next chapter is the last one, unless I decide to do an epilogue. So make sure to tune in! I should be updated in about a week.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto 

A/N: This is the last chapter. I might decide to do an epilogue, but this is the last chapter of any relevance.

Craziness chapter 13

Naruto surveyed the crowded hall with distaste. For almost an hour, the dance had been in full swing. Though perhaps these were an inappropriate choice of words. There was practically no swinging to be found at all. The Konoha High School hall was about as lively as it was when exams were being taken in there, and Naruto didn't see it getting much better.

Sakura had spent much of the night so far trying to avoid Lee, but seemed to have given up and was talking to him over by the door. Perhaps, thought Naruto, she was thinking of the best way to make a quick exit.

Shikamaru had been sulking by himself over by the DJ for the past hour. His face had lit up when he saw Ino walking through the door, especially as she didn't appear to have a date. But despite the fact that she, too, had been alone for a good while, she made no effort to talk to him.

Hinata didn't look like she was having too good a time either. Kiba and Shino were arguing about something (what, Naruto had no idea), and had left Hinata to sit miserably by her cousin next to the punch bowl. Naruto was fairly certain one of the seniors (probably Deidara) had spiked the punch, and so had stayed well away.

The night was a disaster. Naruto decided to wander out into the deserted corridor to see if anyone was out there. He walked aimlessly about the empty school hallway for a couple of minutes, before hearing a sound from behind. He flicked his head around without stopping, and collided into someone just a few seconds later. He fell to the floor, mumbling out an apology for whoever he had run into. He was surprised to see a hand extend down towards him to help him up. And he was even more surprised to see whose hand it was.

"Itachi!" he exclaimed. "What are you – um, I mean, why - "

"Having fun, Naruto?" asked Itachi, as he helped Naruto to his feet.

"Not really." Replied the blond boy. "No one seems to be having any fun."

Itachi smirked. "No romance in the air for you tonight, then?"

"Very funny." Said Naruto dejectedly. "What about you? Why aren't you and Deidara making out in a bathroom stall?"

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Probably because that's what Deidara is doing with Sasori right about now."

Naruto didn't know what to say. He suspected that Itachi had lied to him about his "relationship" with Deidara, but then again, he didn't want to say the wrong thing. "Um…yeah." He finished lamely.

Itachi glared for a few moments. But then –

"Naruto, let's go back into the hall. Sit down. Talk."

Naruto didn't have time to respond as Itachi moved off. He followed like a puppy.

As they sat down, they surveyed the scene once again. Things had not improved much.

"I swear, Itachi, if something good doesn't happen soon, this dance is going to suck."

"It already sucks, Naruto." Replied Itachi bluntly, leaning back on the bench they were now sitting on. Naruto stole a brief glance at him. It didn't help that Itachi was looking especially hot tonight, his black and red tux making him look sexier than ever. Naruto sighed deeply. This was very bad.

"Itachi, can I ask you something?"

Itachi shrugged. "Go ahead."

"Why were you so mad about me liking Sasuke? And why did you lie about dating Deidara?"

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "None of your business."

Naruto glared back. His glares were hardly as intimidating as Itachi's, but he tried. "Actually, it _is _my business. It's to do with me, after all. You're the one who screwed the plan over, Itachi. If it weren't for you Sasuke might still be here."

Itachi looked incensed. "Get real, Naruto. Sasuke left because he wanted to. All we've succeeded in doing over the past two weeks is make your friend over there-" (Itachi indicated Neji) "-extremely miserable."

Naruto nodded. He could not refute this. Neji was miserable. And it was, essentially, his fault. But his thoughts were distracted for a brief moment by the appearance of someone Naruto didn't recognize.

"Hey, Itachi. Who's that?" Naruto pointed over to a boy of about their age who was standing by the door. He had flaming red hair, a tattoo on his forehead, and was dressed entirely in black. He was talking unanimatedly to Temari, the blonde girl from the year above. She was wearing a beautiful dress in purple silk, and her normally wild blonde hair was tamed elegantly into a neat bun. She and this boy seemed to get on well, but were not flirtatious.

"I haven't a clue." Said Itachi dully. "He's not in our school. I suppose Temari brought him."

Naruto frowned. "Only that doesn't seem to make sense. Not only has she brought a date of her own, but she has a huge crush on you. So this guy too?"

Itachi shrugged. "Not important. Though…now that you mention it, I do feel like I've seen him before somewhere. Maybe at a competition or something."

Naruto nodded, not quite realizing the significance of this remark.

----------------------------------------------------

Neji threw back his seventh cup of punch. He was beginning to feel a little lightheaded and dizzy. He had no idea what had been put in the damn punch, but in all honesty he didn't care. He set his glass on the table beside him and leaned back, closing his eyes. Was this evening over yet? No? Just another two hours of torture to go.

The dance was even less fun, if possible, than Neji had anticipated. In fact, there was pretty much nothing that could save the evening now. Nope. Nothing at all.

Neji sighed. The past two weeks of his life had been vastly different from anything he had experienced before. And it sucked. He vowed never to like anyone ever again. He wasn't aware he even had a heart. Let alone one so easily broken.

_Well. _He told himself. _If I'm as sensitive as it looks, then maybe I'd do better to forget about romance, and all that shit. Who knew I could get hurt so easily?_

He growled to himself and poured out another glass of punch. It was going to be a long night.

---------------------------------

Over in the corner of the room by the door, Sakura was, to her amazement, actually enjoying herself. Lee was pretty funny. She was still uninterested in him, in the romantic sense at least, but who knew he could be this funny? Or cool? Or interesting? Sakura was impressed.

"So, Sakura, are you having fun?" asked Lee.

"Actually, I am." She responded honestly. "You're nice to talk to."

"Why, thank you, Sakura!" he exclaimed, blushing. "I'm glad you are enjoying my company."

Sakura nodded, unsure of what to say next. But then Lee grabbed her arm, indicating something.

"Look, Sakura!" he whispered.

"Look at what?"

Lee pointed to someone who was making his way across the room, towards the punch bowl. "That boy. Didn't he leave yesterday?"

Sakura frowned. "You're right. The weirdo is back. I wonder why."

Lee looked at her knowingly. "Probably for Neji."

Sakura looked shocked. "What does Neji-kun have to do with that emo freak?"

Lee shook his head. "Never mind, Sakura. Let's just see what he does."

--------------------------------------------------

_Life is bad. Life is very…very….bad. _Though Neji. _And the fact that I'm clearly some kind of wasted doesn't really help. Man, I really hope I'm not going to die._

Neji was still sitting alone. It seemed like all he ever did lately was be alone. And it had never really bothered him…up until now. He glanced over at Naruto, who was pointing to someone and whispering confidentially with Itachi. He sighed. At least Naruto had someone. He deserved to be happy.

_I hope I DO die, actually. _Though Neji melodramatically. _No, wait. That would just make me like…who's that guy I like? Oh yeah, Sasuke…_

Neji scanned the room. There were no signs of life anywhere. Well there were…people. Just no one Neji wanted to see. But hold on a minute. Who was that? There was a boy making his way towards Neji, someone he was sure he recognized…

_Great…_ he thought. _And now I'm hallucinating, thinking I'm seeing Sasuke. Seriously, what the fuck was in that stuff? But it's talking to me…Do hallucinations talk?_

"Neji!" said the "hallucination". "Neji!"

He looked up. "Sa-Sasuke." Said Neji, confused. "What are you doing here?" he cried, jumping up and clinging on to Sasuke for support. He didn't notice that most eyes in the room were now looking at them.

"Uh, well, I was just here to tell you that I love you." Said Sasuke bluntly.

Neji's eyes widened. "You – you what?"

Sasuke folded his arms. "Now you know as well as I do that I'm not going to fucking say it again, Hyuuga, so you'd better just hope someone caught it on camera."

Neji smiled. "You – you love me? Why?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Oh, believe me, I have no idea. Are you going to do anything about it?"

"Yeah." Said Neji with a grin, and flung his arms around Sasuke to embrace him in a hug. Sasuke was clearly unimpressed.

"Neji." He said, pulling the boy off him. "If you think I drove 84 miles for a _hug_, then you're sadly mistaken."

And yep, you guessed it, Sasuke proceeded to kiss Neji, in front of everyone in the hall. Neji's eyes widened as he leaned into the kiss, amid gasps and cheers from everyone else present. They pulled away, Neji still smiling.

"So…Sasuke. Does this mean you're staying in Konoha?"

Sasuke looked at Neji as though he were simple. "No, of course not. I'm still going to Suna for senior year. But, the way I see it, why can't we have a long distance relationship? It can't be that hard."

"So…" Neji began, confused.

"So, I wanted to get away as soon as possible, because I knew if I stayed I'd never be able to leave, knowing we weren't going to stay together, but now that we are, I don't see why I should spend the summer away from you." Said Sasuke simply.

Neji grinned. "Who says I even want to date you, Uchiha?"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "Oh, I think you do. Or do I need to kiss you again just to convince you? Because, you know, I don't just do that for _anyone._"

Neji feigned thinking. "You know, maybe you kiss me once more. You know, just to make sure."

---------------------------------------------

"Calm down, Naruto! You're making a scene!" yelled Itachi.

"Yeah right!" cried Naruto. "Like anyone's watching _us_! Do you see it, Itachi? Neji! And Sasuke! Kissing!"

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, it's great. Sasuke and Neji are all happy, and it's just like in a cheesy romantic movie. Isn't it wonderful for them?"

Naruto glared at Itachi. "You're so mean. Aren't you happy that even after all we did to unintentionally make them as miserable as possible, they're still happy?"

Itachi sighed. "You can use the word "unintentionally", but you can't divide 100 by two in your head. What am I doing wrong?"

Naruto grinned ashamedly. "Maybe nothing."

Itachi frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"Come on, Itachi. I'm bad at math, but I'm not _that _bad. I can differentiate. I can multiply fractions. And I can divide in my head."

"Then, why - "

"Because." Said Naruto, who was beginning to feel the color rise in his cheeks. "I wanted an excuse to spend more time with you."

Itachi's heart skipped a beat. "You what? Why?" he asked, though he really hoped he already knew the answer.

"How dumb _are _you, Itachi?!?" cried Naruto.

"But – but I though you liked Sasuke!"

Naruto glared. "No, Itachi, I have never liked that whiney little brat you call your brother. I only went along with the plan to make Neji happy, because, for some unknown reason, that is what Sasuke makes him."

"But, the training - "

"You thought I was looking at Sasuke. You were wrong. I was looking at you. Every time you looked my way, I looked away, so you wouldn't realize. I just happened to look at the nearest moving object. Sasuke."

"So you like me?" asked Itachi.

"Well, I would have thought that was obvious." Said Naruto sarcastically, but with the hint of a smile. "But, you know, since you like Deidara, and all, I guess there's no hope for us." He said, grinning.

Itachi grabbed Naruto, pulling him closer towards his own body. "Yeah, about that. I don't think it's gonna work, between me and Deidara."

Naruto was aware that he was no more than a few millimeters away from Itachi, their lips almost touching. "Oh yeah? And why not?"

Itachi grinned. "Oh, because I'm kinda in love with someone else?"

"Anyone I know?"

Itachi could not think of a witty enough comeback, so, of course, he responded by closing the gaps between their lips.

--------------------------------------------

Neji and Sasuke finally broke away from each other. Neji grinned at Sasuke almost dementedly.

"Well, my night's certainly looking up, how about you, Sasuke?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Slightly better, I guess. What d'you wanna do now?"

Neji thought for a minute, all the while stroking Sasuke's arm seductively. "Well…I don't know about you, but I'm getting kinda tired of this dance. You wanna blow this joint?"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "Sure. But where to?"

"How about my place?"

Sasuke smirked. "Sounds good to me."

"You got a car?"

"I've got a limo."

"Great."

"Let's go."

And with that, they were heading towards the exit door. But then –

"Hold on a minute, Neji."

"What?"

"There's someone I wanna thank first."

Neji looked shocked. "I didn't know you ever thanked people!"

"Yeah well."

"So, let's go."

"Well, I would, but at the moment, he seems a little preoccupied." Sasuke indicated his brother, who was still making out with Naruto like there was no tomorrow.

Neji laughed. "I was always rooting for those kids to get together. Ain't it cute?"

Sasuke shrugged. "If cute makes you want to retch, I guess so."

They strolled over to Itachi and Naruto, who, upon seeing them, broke away from each other.

"Sasuke! Neji!" shouted Naruto.

"Hey, Itachi." Said Sasuke gruffly. "Just wanted to say I know it was you who locked us in that computer lab all weekend."

Itachi shrugged. "And?"

"And, we might have died."

"And?"

"And, there was a scary spider."

"And?"

"And…thank you."

Itachi nodded. "You're welcome. Now get out of here. I don't wanna see either of you for at least three days. I'm sick of you." He said with a grin.

Sasuke frowned. "Aren't you at least going to say "welcome back, little brother"?"

"Nope." Said Itachi.

"Come on, Sasuke!" growled Neji. "I wanna go and - "

"Ssshhh!" said Sasuke. "I'm coming." He looked back at his brother and Naruto. "Well, see you two later, I guess."

He turned to leave, and was followed by Neji (who mouthed a quick "thank you" at Naruto before going).

When they were gone, Itachi turned to Naruto. "Well, looks like everything ended up happy." He said.

Naruto nodded. "You're right. And look, the love is spreading!"

"It is?"

"Yeah. Look, Sakura and Lee are dancing together! And Sasuke's friend from Suna is dancing with TenTen. Isn't it sweet? Oh, and look! Ino and Shikamaru! Making out in that corner! Er, OK, calm down, you two. And look, Hinata is with Kiba! I guess she chose him over Shino, then."

Itachi shrugged. "He seems perfectly happy with Temari."

"God, would you look at all these people? Where the hell are the chaperones?"

Itachi snorted. "You mean Kakashi and Iruka? I think we ought to be chaperoning them, not the other way around."

Naruto gasped. "You mean - "

"Yep. Saw them together on my way in."

"Well, it's still cute! Everyone's so happy!"

Itachi grinned. "So, now that this is all over, you can concentrate on what's really important, eh, Naruto? End of year exams next week."

Naruto gasped. "Exams! Oh no! Oh, Itachi, please please please be my tutor again!"

Itachi sighed. "Sorry, Naruto, but I just upped my price."

Naruto visibly paled. "But – I can't afford it!"

Itachi snaked his hands around Naruto's waist. "Oh, I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to pay. After all, I never said it was _money _I wanted."

"Itachi!"

THE END

A/N: Well, that's the end. Forgive me for the OOCness (oh Itachi please forgive me!), and please leave a nice review! I may do an epilogue, but I haven't decided yet. BTW, sorry it became kinda also about Itachi and Naruto, I never meant that to happen. Obviously the main pairing was still Sasuke/Neji, but still, I only meant for ItaNaru to be a side pairing. Oh well, I'll stop rambling now. Bye!


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